The Island
by Saturday
Summary: Maybe the brains of Earthlings naturally are slow and foggy. Maybe we are the morons of the universe. Maybe we are fixed so that we have to do things the hard way. [desertion, rated for slash, swearing, and general insanity]
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** I just read "House of Stairs" by William Sleator. I am in love.

**Disclaimer:** I own Stewart, Keenan, Isaacs, and Joyce. And their lab coats. :-D

-----

**Prologue**

-----

"Ah, gentlemen, you made it. I was beginning to think you'd never show up." 

Dr Stewart smiled grimly at the two young men coming through the doorway. They hurriedly took their seats at the long table with the other twenty or so men, all dressed in the customary pale blue lab coats. "This'd better be good, Stewart," the older man said dourly. "I was on the verge of a breakthrough—"

"Not to worry, Keenan," said Stewart, removing his wiry glasses from his nose and cleaning them against his sleeve. Once he had replaced them, he turned to the rest of the men with a pensive expression on his face. "I generally like to avoid bluntness," he said slowly, "but apparently Keenan is too busy to pay attention to me for too long."

Keenan scowled and ran his fingers through his dark hair. Stewart seemed not to notice. "In any case," he went on casually, "I must make it clear to you all that I am a person disappointed in the human race."

"Oh now there's a surprise," one of the men muttered sarcastically.

"And I have decided to act upon that conviction," Stewart continued.

Several of the men leaned forward with interest. Stewart fought back a smile. He had their attention; he always got it in the end. He reached over to turn on the overhead projector where several diagrams were displayed. "I am of the opinion that human beings as a whole are weak, both physically and mentally, and pathetic. We have become over-reliant on technology and are therefore incapable of caring for ourselves."

Keenan snorted. "How—"

Stewart didn't allow him to finish. "_Therefore_," he said pointedly, "I have come up with an experiment which I would like to carry out." He almost smiled. "Although we are a generally useless species, I feel that it is possible to bring us 'back to the basics', if you will."

"What — bring us back to the animal stages? Undo evolution?" Keenan demanded, one eyebrow cocked. "You're damn outta your mind, if you ask me; it can't be done!"

Stewart tutted. "Well we'll never know until we try, and I have all the calculations figured ahead of time. I've had Joyce give me the names of about thirty teenagers — all orphans, of course — upon whom we could do our testing."

"And how, pray tell, are you planning on carrying out this experiment?" Keenan demanded.

Stewart pointed at the first diagram. It was a picture of a gray-brown landscape with a leafy forest off to one side. "It's just a work in progress," he said apologetically, "but I do think that, given the time and workers, it could be quite effective. I call it 'the Island' but it could be given a better name at any time. If we were to put these teenagers — these subjects — into this alien environment and force them to fare for themselves..."

Keenan rolled his eyes. "That is the most—"

"Well I think it sounds interesting," said another man, Craig Isaacs. "Stewart's really on to something this time. I've never seen so many trees in my life; I think it would be fascinating to see how a modern-day human being would react with being put back into the wild without any technological help." 

It never occurred to any of them the feelings of the "subjects". After a couple hundred years of relentless technological and scientific advances, the importance human opinions and emotions had begun to fade.

Stewart nodded appreciatively at Isaacs. "I have the list of chosen subjects," he said. "Joyce?"

A young woman with white-blonde hair hurried up to him and handed him a three-ring binder. "It's all in here, sir," she said in a quick, soft voice.

"Well, gentlemen," said Stewart, opening the binder and scanning the list. "Let's get to work."

-----

**Author's Note:** Short, I know. But it's just the prologue, and they're always short. In any case, this is my first casting call story! WOO HOO! does happy dance If you're interested, please put this information into your review:

**Name **(and nickname, if you have one)**:**

**Appearance:**

**Personality:**

**Hobbies:**

**Strengths:**

**Weaknesses:**

**Other:**

Thank you very very much! Pleeeaase send me a review ... I gotta admit that I'm kinda nervous about this. I've never done a casting call before and I just ... don't know what to expect, I guess.

-Saturday


	2. Chapter One: Bumlets' POV

**Author's Note:** Growing Bumlets obsession? Oh yeah, baby. And by the way, I'd like you guys to know that this story takes place in 2130 AD. :-) There was a little confusion on that, lol. It's futuristic sci-fi! HOORAY!

**Disclaimer:** CASTING CALL CLOSED! Thank you guys SO MUCH for your characters, I LOVE THEM ALL! The newsies belong to Disney, casting call characters belong to their respective owners, and Stewart and the Island belong to me. WOO HOO!!

-----

_"People — you can't live with 'em, period."___

_-Marshall Kirk_

-----

The problem wasn't that I liked where I had been. That orphanage was absolute crap, I hated it there. Really. I was glad to get away.

No, the problem was that I now found myself sitting in a small elevator that smelled strongly antiseptic and looked overly clean, and I had no idea where I was heading off to. There were no windows so I couldn't even make some sort of vague assumption as to where this thing was going. I was just — stuck.

Ironically enough, the thing stopped just then, the door opened, and the whole thing kind of tipped, pushing me out. "Holy shit—" I swore as I hit the ground and toppled onto all fours. Stupid machine. Probably did that just to annoy me. I rolled over, rubbing the side of my face where it had hit the ground, and sat with my elbow resting on my knee.

The elevator sat there for a minute, gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight. Cocky.

Then I blinked — and it was gone.

"Whoa," I muttered to myself, still gingerly rubbing my cheekbone. What the hell was going on?? I had been in the middle of a lesson with the rest of the guys, and suddenly a bunch of dudes in black came in and swept me away.

And now I was here.

For the first time, I really looked around. I was sitting at the edge of — something. I had never seen so many trees in my life. There were hundreds of thousands grouped together, their leaves a gleaming rich green in the sunlight. I had seen one or two scrawny little trees a little while ago when I was moving between orphanages, but never so many — and so _healthy_. I didn't know forests existed any more.

Because that's what you would call it. A forest, right? One of those fantastical legends from a billion years ago.

The grass around me was thick and green, fading slowly out into yellow-white sand. And — oh lord — there was this vast expanse of _water_ stretching as far as the eye could see. Blue-green, ever-moving, salty _water._

Holy shit. Where the hell _was_ I?

I scrunched up my nose, thinking hard. I have the tendency to do that, it drives people crazy. The guys in black hadn't given any sort of explanation. They had handed Mrs. Selden an envelope which she read with eyebrows raised before looking at me.

"Good luck, Marius," she said.

I hated that. That she used my real name instead of my nickname, Bumlets, and that she hadn't clarified anything at all.

And with that they brought me outside and forced me into a large black automobile. One of the real nasty ones, with the hard metallic smell and no driver. Just a control panel operated by the car itself. The two dudes sat on either side of me we drove off to some other building, from which I was dumped into the elevator.

What. The. Hell.

"HALLELUJAH!" someone yelled from behind me, causing me to jump a foot in the air. I bit my lip so as not to swear as strong, slender arms were wrapped tightly around my shoulders.

"What the—" I tried my best to turn around, but soon realized that it was impossible. Instead, I was forced to wait for the person to let go of me and sit down on the grass beside me.

She was rather small with strawberry-blonde hair and big blue eyes. A pair of sunglasses rested over her forehead, reflecting the sun directly into my eyes.

Sometimes I think God really hates me.

"Aww man I'm so _happy!_" she gasped. _No shit._ "I thought I was the only person here! I'm Sapphy, it's nice to meet you." She held out her hand.

I looked her over before tentatively shaking her hand. Her grip was surprisingly firm and her smile didn't falter at my hesitation. "I'm Bumlets," I said finally.

"That's an interesting name."

"Heh. Sapphy."

"Aw shaddup, at least mine makes sense in context." She pulled her knees up to her chest and looked out over the ocean, still smiling vaguely. How the hell could she be so goddamn HAPPY?? We were on a friggin' deserted island!

"So," she said after a minute. "Any idea where we are?"

"No."

We sat there for a couple minutes more without saying anything. She stuck her finger in the dirt and drew a squiggly line. "Man, you really don't talk much, do you?" she said finally.

"No."

"Ah well. To each his own." She stood up and brushed her hands off on her skirt.

"Whoa."

"What?"

I pointed at her shirt. "You're from Winters Orphanage?"

"Thus the Winters Orphanage uniform, yes." She raised an eyebrow at me. "Why?"

"I'm from Tuckerman's, we're right around the corner," I said, shrugging.

"Seriously?" she asked, eyebrows raised. "That's weird. What're the chances of the only other person on this island living right around the corner? That's ... That's weird."

"There could be other people on the island," I said quietly.

"Ya think so?" Sapphy smiled at the prospect. Definitely a people person, I decided. "Well then let us find them! Come, good sir, we shall turn our backs on this desolate place and ensue good company!" She grabbed my forearm and pulled me up.

Whoa. Weird.

But — good.

I liked her.

The two of us headed into that — that mass of green leaves and black trunks, Sapphy singing some random song in Old English. ("PAAASTIME WITH GOOD COMPANY, I LOVE AND SHALL UNTIL I DIIIIE! ENVY SOME BUT NONE DENY, SO GOD BE PLEASED THUS LIVE WILL IIIII!") Honestly, if there was any other form of human life, I think she may have scared them to the other side of the island.

"Hey Sapph?" I said suddenly.

"Mm-hmm?"

"Do you think there's any kind of ... like, wild animals here?"

She stopped and ran a hand through her hair. "I honestly have no—" She broke off abruptly, looking through the trees to the side. I followed her gaze.

Three figures were standing at the edge of the trees, hands in their pockets, deep in discussion. Their backs were to us but I could tell that two of them were guys and one was a girl. I looked at Sapphy.

She smiled at me. "Aw come on, we should go and say hi!!" she said brightly and hurried over to them.

I knew she would say that.

I allowed myself to be dragged over to them, cringing inwardly. I wouldn't call myself antisocial, but I'm definitely an introvert. Not too anxious to meet every single living creature on this — island thing.

"Hey!" Sapphy called out. The three whipped around, surprised. The girl on the end almost fell over. Ha, I could relate.

"Hey," said one of the guys. He was tallish with large teeth and brown hair. He looked friendly enough, I guess. Kind of scared, but friendly.

"I'm Sapphy," said Sapphy.

"I'm Snitch," said the guy. His smile was growing steadily more confident now that he realized neither of us was holding bloody spears or loaded guns. "And this is Scout and Skittery," he added as an afterthought.

"Hey," said Scout amiably, shaking Sapphy's hand. She looked at me.

"Oh — this recluse over here is Bumlets," said Sapphy. She patted my back and winked at me. "He's an introvert."

Aw thanks.

"As opposed to...?" said Snitch, smiling at her.

She grinned back. "An extremely extroverted sixteen-year-old orphan with a lot to say."

"You're an orphan too?" asked Skittery slowly. I was beginning to understand his name. Paranoid lunatic, he kept looking around nervously like something was about to jump out of the bushes any minute.

"Yeah."

"Are you kidding me?" Scout demanded.

"What — you're an orphan too?" said Snitch, surprised.

"Yes! I lived in a Connecticut orphanage for all my life."

"The Jefferson Orphanage of California," said Snitch. "Too weird."

"We're _all_ orphans here?" I asked.

Sapphy looked around. "Well — yes."

Whoa. I could tell I wasn't the only person really creeped out by all of this. _I think I spot a pattern! Ooh goody, I'm so clever!_

Just then, two other girls came around the corner from where they had obviously been walking along the beach. The shorter one, who was quite pretty with black hair, brown eyes, and pale skin, was giving some sort of vivid description (and using her hands a lot as she talked, might I add). The other girl was taller, also with black hair, and she was listening intently.

"HELLO!" Sapphy yelled. "ARE EITHER OF YOU BETWEEN THE AGES OF FOURTEEN AND SEVENTEEN AND AN ORPHAN?"

Both girls looked up with identical expressions of astonishment on their faces. Then they glanced at each other and headed over to us. "Um — yeah," said the taller one. "I'm Kyriel — and yeah, now that you mention it, I'm sixteen and an orphan."

"AAH! Seriously?" the other girl gasped. "Me too! I'm Coin, by the way," she added, smiling at us.

"Well, coincidentally, we're all orphans of about the same age," said Snitch, running a hand through his hair. "And I am wicked creeped out."

Californians. Gotta love 'em.

"Allow me to introduce everyone, since it seems like nobody else is going to do it," said Sapphy, grinning. "I'm Sapphy, and this is Scout, Snitch, Skittery, and Bumlets."

"Nice to meet you."

"ON MY OWWWWN! PRETENDING HE'S BESIIIDE MEEEE! ALL ALONE I WALK WITH HIM TILL MORNIIIIIING! WITHOUT HIM I FEEL HIS ARMS AROUND MEEE! AND WHEN I LOSE MY WAY I CLOSE MY EYES AND HE HAS FOUND MEEEEE!"

A girl and a boy waltzed from the trees — or rather, the girl waltzed and the guy kind of trailed behind awkwardly.

"You know Les Misérables??" Sapphy gasped.

The girl stopped and grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. My — my mom has an old CD of all the songs. It's fantastic."

For once, Sapphy was at a loss for words. I honestly had no idea what the hell they were talking about; Les Miser-wha? Who listened to music anymore? It had been outlawed years ago. Sapphy mouthed silently for a minute and then grinned. "I'm Sapphy."

"I'm Ershey," said the girl. She flicked her wavy black hair out of her eyes and put her hands in her pockets.

"And I'm Mush," said the guy after a minute.

Snitch cackled. I didn't blame him. Mush ... and the ironic thing was, he was most certainly not a mushy kind of person. He was totally ripped, man! From what I could see through his long-sleeved t-shirt, anyway — which did, by the way, have the R. J. Williams Orphanage emblem on it.

We quickly introduced ourselves. Dude, the group was definitely growing fast. Sapphy, me, Snitch, Skittery, Scout (_aah to many S-names!!_), Coin, Kyriel, Ershey, and Mush...

Apparently, Scout was thinking along the same lines as I was. "Whoa. What are we now? Nine? This is crazy — WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??"

Dude. Applause. Couldn't have said it better myself.

"Ok, well — I was kinda dumped in this elevator-type deal for no clear reason and deposited here," said Ershey.

"Yeah, same here," said Skittery.

"And I'm getting really nervous," said Ershey.

"Yeah, same here," said Skittery.

"Skittery, hon, you're always nervous," Sapphy pointed out.

He actually smiled. _He actually smiled._ It was surprising — Sapphy had the tendency to bring out the best in people without any effort. I dunno how the hell she did it, but she was extremely good at it.

She looked at my suddenly. "All right," she said, "you're being freakishly quiet. Say something, for God's sake!"

I blinked. "I'd like to get moving," I said quietly. "It's a big island; there could be other people here, y'know?"

"Good idea," said Kyriel. "I'm getting kinda twitchy, anyway."

"Well then let's go!" said Coin excitedly. Yeah, she was definitely an excitable person. 

Honestly? I didn't think we'd find anyone else. I mean, how many kids could they possibly have dumped on this place?

A lot.

Twenty-three, actually. No, I'm not kidding.

About fifteen of them were hanging out at the edge of the forest, pretty close to where Sapphy and I started out. A tall girl in the middle with cropped strawberry-blonde hair was telling some sort of story, emphasizing a lot and using a _load_ of facial expression. The others were listening raptly, laughing and gasping (and singing, in the case of some) at all the right moments.

"AHA!" yelled the girl in the middle, stopping in mid-sentence. "NEWCOMERS ON THE HORIZON! AHOY!"

Sapphy's new best friend? You betchya.

"I'm Christabel, but you guys can call me Bel," said the girl, grinning. She then went on to introduce her fanclub: Nani, Specs, Dutchy, Cat, Granny, Jack, Alaska, Pie Eater (I think Ershey wet herself from laughing so hard when she heard his name), Emily, Spitfire, David, Flare, Itey, Blink, and King.

"Don't tell me — you guys are all orphans, right?" said Kyriel with a half-smile.

"My parents died a while back," Alaska said. "Why? Are—"

"Yeah, same here," said Blink. "Car accident. I got a souvenir, too." He gestured towards the patch that was covering his left eye with a grim smile.

King didn't say anything, but I noticed her shifting her long brown legs uncomfortably. There was a thin scar running from her kneecap to the middle of her shin and she seemed to be wishing she wasn't wearing shorts.

"Dude, this is just getting weirder and weirder," Skittery muttered to me.

"Tell me about it," I murmured back.

Cat sat (ooh it rhymes!) down on the sand and blew her dirty blonde hair out of her eyes. "Well I just think—"

Before she could finish her sentence, however, a gleaming white elevator materialized before us all. With a swishing noise, the doors slid open and a teenage boy was tossed out onto the sand. "Aw crap—" he muttered as he fell.

Face getting implanted into sand. I could relate.

The elevator disappeared and the guy stood up shakily, arms crossed over his chest. He looked up, spotted all of us, leapt backwards, then recollected himself and stepped forwards again. "Hey," he said slowly, smiling.

There was a resounding sigh from all the girls as the pupils of their eyes turned into little hearts. This guy was extremely good-looking, to put it simply. He had softly curled dark brown hair, a piercing in his right eyebrow, and a body to match Mush's (and that's definitely saying something).

In the end, it was King who spoke first. "Hey," she said. "I'm assuming you have no idea why you're here, either."

"You assume correctly," he said charmingly. "I'm James Charleston but you can call me Bandit — everyone else does, anyway."

"HOLY SHIT! All right, I had NO IDEA there were so many people in this place!" someone laughed, coming across the beach. He was small and obviously Italian, and he was standing amidst about nine other teenagers. They were a lively bunch, kind of hopping over to us with big smiles on their faces. "Racetrack Higgins," said the guy, grinning. "Nice to meet you all. Kind of a scrawny bunch, aren't you?"

Sapphy snorted. "This coming from the shortest guy I have ever met," she said.

"Why thank you, miss," he said pleasantly. "And you are?"

"Sapphy."

"Well I see I'm not the only one with a bizarre name. Wonderful!" He clapped his hands together and grinned at us all. "This here's Spot, Braids, Irish, Chris, Soaker — aah, where's — oh there you are — Crutchy, Boots, Nova, and Swifty."

My eyes, which had been going over each person in turn, rested longest on Swifty. I don't know why. There was just something about him — the way he held himself, the good-natured vibes coming from him. He tilted his head to the side and smiled at me, wiggling his eyebrows slightly. I smiled back shyly.

"Has anyone figured out what we're gonna eat?" asked Pie Eater suddenly.

Way to ruin the romantic moment. Sheesh.

Irish looked at Chris. "I haven't even thought of that," she said slowly.

"We'll go fishing!!" Braids exclaimed, her braids bouncing. (Whoa — I just got it. Braids. Heh heh...)

Spot looked at her like she had five heads. "Are you outta your MIND??" he demanded. She grinned and opened her mouth (probably to say "But of course, my dear!") but he cut her off. "Does anyone here know how to go fishing? Seriously."

I kind of did. I didn't want to say anything, though, so I kept my head down and put my hands in my pockets. Nobody else raised their hand and Spot turned back to Braids, victorious. "Mwahaha," he said.

Am I the only one sensing major flirtation between the pair of them?

I didn't think so.

"It was just a suggestion," she said, pouting. "Besides, how else are we gonna get food? I didn't see any sort of ... fruit or anything in the forest."

"We can't eat raw fruit!" said Soaker. "Are you insane, it'd kill us!!" (A/N: I'm SO SORRY I gave Soaker this ditzy line; it's not because I don't like her, it's 'cause I'm trying to show that in this time period the human race is extremely...dependant on technology. FORGIVE ME, SOAKER!!)

"Does anyone have a watch?" Granny asked suddenly, looking at the darkening sky.

We all looked at our wrists. It was kind of funny — even those of us who knew we didn't have watches on still looked down out of habit. "They took my watch from me in the car," said Nova after a second of silence in which we all wondered where our watches were.

"Yeah, me too," said Emily.

"I HAVE A TANLINE FROM MY WATCH!" yelled Itey.

"Why do you think they took them from us?" Alaska wondered out loud. "I mean it's not like we could really do anything with them..."

"AAAH!" Flare yelled. "THEY TOOK MY LIGHTER!!"

"Ok," said Blink. "What the hell. Does anyone have anything remotely modern on them besides clothes and jewelry and all that crap?"

We all turned our pockets inside out and I think I saw Sapphy checking down her bra. "No," said Specs finally. "I'm completely cleaned out."

"I'm no better off; all I've got are my earrings and they're not even that nice," said Nani, grinning despite the rather morose situation.

"We're screwed," said Chris bluntly.

Just then there was a faint rumble of thunder in the distance, as if to say "Not yet you're not". Ershey groaned. "I hate rain!" she moaned.

"So do I," said Mush glumly.

"Hey, let's not make any assumptions," Racetrack pointed out, grinning. "It could be hail." Cat threw her hat at him.

And thus we went to bed, awkwardly curling up on the sand or leaning against tree trunks. I pulled my legs against my chest and leaned back against a tree, far from Sapphy and Ershey (who, as I soon realized, sang in their sleep). I had never slept outdoors before; it was a bizarre experience, with the wind rustling my dark hair and the soft splashing of the waves filling my ears.

It would have been relaxing had our situation been a little less confusing and frightening. I tried to clear my thoughts of anything vaguely relating to beaches, orphans, and sterile white elevators.

Nevertheless, the last thing I did before I was dead to the world was wonder blearily where Swifty had decided to sleep for the night.

-----

**Author's Note:** Man, that is LONG for me! WOO HOO! No shoutouts tonight, I'm sorry. I hope I got everyone in, and I'm sorry if you didn't get as many lines as you would have hoped. I'm new at this, all right? I've never worked with more than seven characters at a time, and here I was with 36. Dude. Anyway, leave a review and I'll love you forever! :-D 

-Saturday


	3. Chapter Two: Quest for Food

**Author's Note:** POV CHANGE! WOO HOO! I think I'm gonna end up changing points of view several times throughout the chapter; don't expect one like last time with one narrator the entire time. That was quite a rare occasion indeed...

**Disclaimer:** The Island is mine. MWAHAHA! Other than that, Newsies belongs to Disney and the characters belong to their respective owners.

-----

_"Maybe the brains of Earth-lings naturally are slow and foggy. Maybe we are the morons of the universe. Maybe we are fixed so that we have to do things the hard way." _

_–Desertion, Clifford D Simak_

-----__

Kyriel 

_"OOHH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MOOORNIIIIING! OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAAAAAAY! I'VE GOT A BEAUTIFUL FEEEEELING EVERYTHING'S GOIN' MY WAAAAAAY!"_

I awoke with a jolt, rolling over and hitting into Spot, who smacked me and mumbled something unintelligible. Wonderful start to the day. I was just about ready to kill whoever had been singing.

I sat up, leaning back against my arms and rubbing my eyes. Ershey was standing happily at the water's edge, black hair blowing in the wind, singing her head off.

Oh. My. God.

"All right," said King blearily as she sat up, "I'm guessing she's a morning person."

"I vote we all run at her, tackle her to the ground, and threaten to hold her head underwater if she ever wakes us up again," said Bel.

I grinned. "Sounds good to me."

"_ALL THE SOUNDS OF THE EARTH ARE LIKE MUUUSIIIIC! ALL THE SOUNDS OF THE_— AAH! GUYS! GET OFF ME, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU—"

If the rest of the guys hadn't been awake before, they would be now. Most of them sat up groggily and squinted at us (except Sapphy, who, amazingly, managed to stay asleep).

"HUMAN PYRAMID, WOO HOO!" Race bellowed, flinging himself on top of us.

"HOLY SHIT, I THINK YOU JUST BROKE MY WRIST!" King yelled.

"AAH! REALLY?" Ershey yelled back.

"IT'S TURNING GREEN!" King yelled. "RACETRACK, GET THE HELL OFF ME!"

I would have yelled something back, but at the moment I was a bit busy with a mouth full of sand. Bel had somehow ended up with her head underwater. Oh, the irony ... I found myself wondering if it really was worth all this trouble to get Ershey to stop singing.

"All right, break it up!" Granny called, grabbing Racetrack around the waist and lifting him easily out of the mass of bodies.

"Well that was certainly refreshing..." Ershey said, wringing the water out of her hair. "I don't think I've ever come closer to having a heart-attack in my life."

I laughed, choked, and spat out some more sand. How pathetic.

"HEY!" Race yelled. (I've decided he's the kind of guy who talks in all capital letters.) "SAPPHY'S STILL ASLEEP! LET'S WAKE HER UP!"

"Oh I wouldn't do that if I were—" said Braids quickly, but not quickly enough.

"SAPPHY!" Race yelled, poking her shoulder. "SAPPHYSAPPHYSAPPHYSAPPH—" Wham! "OWW my NOSE!"

"Oh my god I'm sorry Race I thought you were the elephant from my dream—"

"You tried to punch an elephant in the nose???"

"I was tired, all right? Oh my god you're bleeding I'm sorry I'll never do it again I'm a little confused when I'm just waking up—"

"It's ok, I feel fibe, just gib be a binute...does edyone have a tissue or subthig?"

Flare felt around in her pockets and shook her head. "I'm wearing long sleeves, though," she said, the corner of her mouth tugging up.

"I dink I'll pass, danks," said Race and he pathetically attempting to wink at her while pinching his nose.

"I vote we figure out what we're going to eat," said Jack after a minute. "Any ideas?"

Ah. Food. I had completely forgotten.

Wow. I'd never said _that_ before...

Emily looked back at the dense forest behind us, shading her eyes with her hand. "Maybe we should split up," she said quietly. "I mean, this is a huge island, if that's what you'd call it, and — well, we're a big group."

"Good thinking," said Jack appreciatively.

"I'b not wid Sapphy!" said Race immediately, still pinching his nose.

"Aw shaddup, I already said I was sorry!"

"I still think we should go fishing," said Braids glumly. "Are you guys sure none of you know how?"

Bumlets cleared his throat quietly. "I ... I kind of know..." he said.

Braids beamed at him. "Really???"

"Yeah..."

"I'd like to go fishing!" said Coin enthusiastically.

"All right!" Jack bellowed over the noise. "I'm splittin' you guys up! Braids, Bumlets, Coin, Spot, Scout, Itey, Kyriel, Skittery, Snitch, Swifty, Nova, and me, we're gonna go fishing. Uh let's see ... Emily, Spitfire, Race, Nani, Granny, Blink, David, Sapphy—"

"DOOOO!" Race yelled.

"What?" Jack stopped and looked at him.

"He means 'NOOOO!'" Sapphy explained. "You put me and him in the same group."

"Oh. Ok ... Anyway, you guys and Mush, Alaska, King, and Bandit, you guys go into the forest looking for, like ... fruit and all that good stuff, I guess. And the rest of you — Boots, Irish, Bel, Ershey, Cat, Chris, Soaker, Flare, Pie Eater, Dutchy, Specs, and Crutchy — I guess you should go into the forest too except over to the right so we cover more ground." Jack ran a hand through his hair, looking us all over. "Yeah, that seems about right."

"Well aren't you all-powerful?" Soaker joked, grinning at him. He looked as though he was going to stick his tongue out at her but thought better of it.

"All right, we'll meet back here around ... Dammit, I don't have a watch ... Well when it feels like noon, head back here. M'kay?"

"Roger that," said Bel in a robot voice.

-----

**Braids**

****

We're going fishing. Aw man, I am _good._

All right, I admit I do have a bit of a fish-fetish. They're my favorite animals. Besides, I kinda wanted to see Spot hopping around all wet and shirtless. You just don't see that kind of thing nowadays...

"How do you know how to fish?" Kyriel asked Bumlets curiously once the other two groups had departed.

"I dunno..." he mumbled, nudging the sand with the toe of his sneaker. That was all the information he seemed willing to give, so we decided to let it go. Friggin' introverts. What is the world coming to??

"Guys?" said Scout suddenly. "I — well, I don't know how to swim."

"Neither do I," said Swifty. Wow, I had almost forgotten the dude was there...

"It's ok, you don't need to be able to," said Bumlets. "Here, we're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way 'cause we don't have any fishing rods or anything..."

I sat myself down on the sand and pulled off my sneakers. "What exactly do you mean by 'the old-fashioned way'?"

He headed over to the forest and grabbed a stick. "Oh, _that _old-fashioned way," I said. He turned and grinned at me.

Wow. Actually got a smile outta the guy.

"Are these gonna be sharp enough?" asked Nova, gingerly poking the end of hers.

"Maybe get a rock or something to sharpen it with," Scout suggested. "Ooh this is so exciting! I feel so Pocahontas!"

"All right men, let's get to work," said Jack, grabbing a stick too and pulling off his long-sleeved t-shirt. Ha. Let the shirt-removing process begin — now!

"See the look of intense concentration on Kyriel's face as she approaches the wild tree-branch," Kyriel said dramatically, tip-toeing into the forest. "She circles, examining her prey at all angles, then lets out a wild war cry — and pounces! AHA! SHE RETURNS VICTORIOUS!"

I liked her.

The twelve of us ran into the ocean, singing that song at the top of our lungs at the beginning of Pocahontas when all the Native Americans are walking around collecting corn and stuff. Best song in the world, I swear. The cold, salty water hit me head-on, almost knocking my off my feet. I had never been in the ocean before. All the oceans near home were flat, heavy masses of oil and garbage and death. No one was allowed to go in them anymore.

But this one — Dude, this was friggin' amazing. The water was clear and cold and alive and I was EXCITED!!

"All right, this is how you do it," said Bumlets after the rest of us had gotten over our initial enthusiasm about being in an actual ocean (which, might I add, included Spot grabbing me around the waist and throwing me directly into a wave...) "You take the sharper end of your stick — no, don't put it near your nose, Snitch — and you stand very very still. Still, Swifty! No, stop wiggling your eyebrows at me, I want you to stand completely still and watch the water."

We all did as he instructed. It was unnerving, really, how the whooping and splashing we had been creating was suddenly replaced by utter silence apart from the waves crashing softly against the shore.

And then suddenly I saw what I knew Bumlets had been making us wait for. A small school of medium-sized fish darted past our bare ankles, glimmering in the wavering light.

"I see 'em!" Coin exclaimed. The fish darted away. "Nevermind, I don't see 'em..."

"All right, ya gotta be _quiet _too..." said Bumlets pointedly.

We fell back to standing still in the water, watching the waves. Well — sort of watching the waves. I had gotten over the first excitement of seeing a real live fish, and now I was kinda looking at Spot.

Hey, you would have been too! The man was wet and shirtless, for cryin' out loud!

Slowly, reluctantly, another small school swam into view. "All right, this is how it works," said Bumlets softly, leaning forward slightly in concentration. "Don't just jab at the water, they're fast and they'll swim away. You just wait for one to come to you—"

He bent down and sharply plunged his stick into the water, bringing it back up with one of the silvery fish speared on the other end. "Et voilia."

I burst into applause. "Oh that was _wonderful_," I gushed.

"Thanks..." said Bumlets, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away. I guess he's the kind of guy who doesn't like compliments. Weirdo...

The rest of us set to work. Needless to say, we weren't half as successful as Bumlets was. Spot narrowly missed stabbing my foot instead of a fish (except I think that may have been on purpose), Snitch nearly took out Swifty's eye, and Scout somehow _lost _her stick...

Bumlets just wasn't cut out for leadership. He kept running between us, telling is to stop wiggling around, to watch the fish with both eyes instead of the spear, to stop getting each other in headlocks. He seemed to be having the most trouble with Swifty, who apparently had no hand-eye coordination whatsoever. Or maybe he just wanted a shirtless Bumlets to put his arms around him, hold his spear for him, and show him how to do it.

Yeah, that definitely made more sense.

All in all, we managed to get about six medium-sized fish (none of which, by the way, were mine...) and dump them on the sand by the time the other two groups arrived back. "So — fishing was a really dumb idea, wasn't it?" I said to Spot, grinning.

He scowled at me. "Yes," he said.

I don't think I'm going to give him any fish for dinner.

-----

**Cat**

****

_"Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred miiiinuuuuutes! Five hundred, twenty-five thousand moments so deeeeaaaar!"_

"Ershey, I thought you had learned your lesson about singing," said Bel in mock vehemence.

"No," said Ershey. _"In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee ... in inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife ... in five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year in the liiiiiiiife?"_

Yep, we were an interesting group. We probably weren't gonna find anything particularly useful, but it's all good.

"All right, guys, let's pause the musical for a minute and try to find some food," said Specs, tilting his head to the side and grinning. "That sound good to you, Ersh?"

"Aw shaddup..."

"Let's play I Spy!" exclaimed Flare.

"Ooh yay!" said Bel excitedly.

Specs moaned and ran his fingers through his hair. "Come on, guys, let's play I Spy while we look for food!"

"I Spy on the move! How exotic!"

"Are you always this energetic?"

"Yes."

We proceeded into the forest, Flare desperately trying to guess what the "something yellow" Bel had chosen was. (It turned out to be the floral pattern on Specs' boxer shorts; he smacked her arm and refused to talk to her for the rest of the trip.)

I, however, wasn't having half as much fun as they all were. Crutchy and I were near the back, him because of his bad leg, and me for reasons I couldn't explain. I kept hearing this behind me, but I'd look over my shoulder and nothing would be there. It didn't sound like the usual squirrel or chipmunks, either; this thing, whatever it was, sounded huge.

"Hey," I said quietly, nudging Crutchy in the ribs. "You hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That — rustling noise behind us." I felt so stupid saying out loud.

He stopped and listened for a minute and allowed the rest of the group to drift slightly ahead. For about ten seconds we stood in silence. Nothing happened. Crutchy looked at me, a half-grin playing across his lips. "Ya sure you heard somethin'?" he asked.

"Yes!"

"All right, all right, I'll tell you if I hear anything." He winked at me. "C'mon, let's catch up with them. I'm slow enough as it is..."

"BANANAS! OOH YAY!!" came Ershey's voice from out of nowhere. Crutchy and I looked at each other, grinning, and hurried back to the group.

They were all kind of hopping around a tall, lean banana tree, apparently doing some sort of victory dance (that looked suspiciously like the Lebanese dabke, but maybe I'm just losing my mind...) "We have food, we have food!" said Soaker excitedly.

"No we don't," said Irish.

"Wha?"

"I'm like the tallest person here and I definitely can't reach that high."

"NOOO!" Itey cried, flinging himself on the ground. Bel laughed (really hard) and then did the same thing (and laughed some more).

"Guys!" Specs yelled. "Stop spazzing out! We're gonna get those bananas! Here — Boots, you're the shortest, climb up onto Irish's shoulders. No, I'm not kidding. Stop looking at me like that, just climb onto her friggin' shoulders!"

Irish bent down and allowed Boots to hop lightly on to her, and then she stood up directly under one of the clusters of banana. "HOW'S THE WEATHER UP THERE?" Ershey yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"Can you reach?" asked Itey anxiously. (I think he was kinda hungry.)

"No ... Yes." Boots stretched up and pulled a banana from the tree. "AHA! I am the all-mighty picker of the bananas! BOW AND FEAR ME!!"

"Just bring down the bananas!" we all yelled.

He grinned. "All right, all right ... sheesh, you guys need to take a chill pill..." He reached up again, this time trying to grab one higher up on the clump. Unfortunately, it was stuck. He tugged, scowled, yanked harder, and suddenly the whole bunch of bananas fell and landed with a splat on top of the rest of us standing below.

Boots cringed and slowly looked down at us. "Well," said Ershey again, wiping banana paste out of her eyes, "that was refreshing."

-----

**Spitfire**

Racetrack's nose pretty much stopped bleeding about three minutes into our trek into the woods.

I just learned what "trek" means. Now I get it — Star Trek? Like a journey through the stars! Oh my god, I'm so excited...

Ahem. Racetrack's nose pretty much stopped bleeding about three minutes into our trek through the woods. We were all pretty happy about this, considering he kept grumbling incoherently about Sapphy and asking if we were all sure we didn't have tissues.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" asked Mush curiously.

"Any edible outgrowth from the plants," said David.

Show-off...

Mush just looked more confused at this. "I think he means fruit," said Bandit, grinning at him.

"Oh," said Mush.

_"We are on a quest for bananaaaaaaaas!" _sang Nani.

"Not necessarily bananas," said Alaska.

"Aw shut up, I'm having a musical moment," said Nani.

"Well let's GO on our quest instead of singing about it, how's that?" said Race, grinning. "Come, good sirs and gentle ladies, onward we go into the depths of—" He stopped and thought a minute. "I call this land — Racetrack Forest!"

If any of us had bananas, we would have thrown them at him.

We did, however, follow his lead and head into "Racetrack Forest" with our eyes peeled for bananas.

Heh heh ... sorry, I couldn't resist. But our eyes _peeled_? Looking for _bananas_? Because you _peel_ a _banana_??? All right, I'm done...

_"I'm Chiquita Banana and I'm here to say bananas have to ripen in a special way!" _sang Sapphy. _"When they're flecked with brown and have a golden hue, that's the time bananas are ripe for you!"_

_"I know that song!" _I exclaimed. _"You can put them in a salad, you can put them in a pie-ie-ie-ie! Any way you want to eat them, it's impossible to beat them! Now bananas like the climate of the tropical equator, so you never put bananaaaaaaaaaas in the refrigerator!"_

Sapphy and I then went into a sort of complex dance, hopping around and singing our glorious Chiquita Banana song. Naturally, we got quite a few funny looks from our banana-seeking friends...

"I think I see something!" said King suddenly, hopping up and down (because she was, mind you, quite short).

"Hey!" said Sapphy grumpily. "Those aren't bananas!"

And indeed they weren't. We all looked up at the tree before us, scratching our heads and wondering what the hell the thing was.

"I think — they're mangos," said David after a minute.

"What the hell is a mango?" Racetrack demanded.

"They're good — here, Granny, you should be tall enough — reach up and grab one of them, would you?" asked David politely.

Granny stood on tiptoe and pulled a fruit from the nearest branch. It was reddish and large, about the size of both my clenched fists together. David took it from her and sat himself down on the forest floor, grabbing a sharp stone and wiping the dirt off onto his pants. Holding it like a pencil, he cut a straight line around the circumference of the mango and pulled it open.

We all got to try some. Sapphy put her hand on her forehead and pretended to swoon after her first bite.

It was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. They just didn't have exotic fruits like these back home; I mean you could get bananas and apples at the grocery stores, but never anything like this...

We took about ten (David had told us not to take them all because they'd go bad) and then Alaska volunteered to rip of a small strip of her shirt and tie it to a tree branch every few yards so that we could find the tree later on. Now that's innovation for you.

"I wonder if the other guys managed to get anything," I said. Frankly, I was starving.

"I'll bet they did," said Sapphy. "And when we get back, I'm making fish-and-mango pancakes."

Well then.

-----

**Shoutouts!!!**

****

**rogue: **Crapping in a hole in the ground ... Hmm. Never considered where they would "relieve themselves", if you will. Thank you for the inspiration (lol) and the review!

**TechniColor DreamGirl:** I love Bandit too! Can we clone him or something so that we each get one? lol, thank you so much for your characters (I adore them!!!) and the review! I love ya!

**uninvisible:** Oww I just crushed my thumb and now I can't type ... Whatever. Thank you SO MUCH for your review, I love you! I really wish I could offer you another spot in the casting call, but I think I've bitten off more than I can chew with 36 characters and counting. :-D If there are any other openings I'll let you know!

**ShortAtntionSpaz:** Ah, my long-lost reviewer! I admit, I've missed you terribly and the bizarre footnotes on your reviews. I'll definitely let you know if I need any lab-coaters or something, lol. Thanks for the review, I love ya!

**Ccat:** Aw man I feel incredibly special. Thanks so much for the review, I love ya!

**Madison Square:** Have I told you I love your name? No? Well I love your name. :-D Thanks so much for the review, I love ya!

**Coin:** Yes, lots of people. And, ironically, I'm more of a Bumlets-type person; very introverted, rather anti-social at times ... not quite to the extreme point like he is, but ... yeah. Anyway, thanks for the review!

**Repeats:** I TRIED TO MAKE FLARE TALK IN LOWER-CASE A LITTLE MORE THIS CHAPTER. WAS THIS BETTER? lol, I dunno where I get all my crazy songs ... I have connections. Thanks for the review, I love ya!

**Soaker:** Go ditz-impersonators! WOO HOO! I myself suck at being ditzy, actually ... I just don't have it in me to be that enthusiastic ... lol, thanks for the review!'

**singin'-newsies-goil:** lol! You got a whole narration this chapter, are you happy now?? lol, jk, it was a PLEASURE! Now update your story, woman, before I get my spears out of the closet again!! Thanks for the review, I love ya!

**ershey:** Yes, I named Bumlets Marius because I went to see Les Mis in Westford and the guy who played Marius looked just like Bumlets ... only hotter. I think I blacked out when I first saw him, lol. Thanks SO MUCH for the review, I love ya!

**KyrielF:** You? Dramatic? Pfft, don't make me laugh ... HOORAY FOR TALKING LIKE YODA! WOO HOO! Thanks for the review, I love ya!

**Sapphy:** lol!!! All right, funniest review award definitely goes to you! WOO HOO! What's wrong with fishing? I love fishies, they're so slimy and ... Oh, I see your point. Well I love you for who you are, despite your strange fear of aquatic life forms. Thanks for reviewing!

**tinydanceremily:** You know, I think you're one of the characters with like less than one line per chapter. I'm so sorry!! I shall try to get you in more ... hey, I have a proposal to make. Would you be willing to go out with Davey at the end? I understand that a lot of people really can't stand him, but it would really work with the plotline and your characters work well together so ... is that all right? It's perfectly fine if you don't wanna, I just wanted to make sure. Thanks for reviewing!!

**klover:** Yeah, the voices in my head drown out thought for me too ... lol, thanks for the review, I love ya!!

**nani:** I think I had you singing this time, right? Thanks for the review (short as it was, lol...)

**Scout73:** Of COURSE you got in, Scouters, and of COURSE you were with Snitchy-poo!! How could you NOT be? It's SCOUT! Ok I need to hold back on the capital letters ... I love you, thanks for the review!

**Cassies-Grandma:** I'm sorry, it's real hard to get everyone as many lines as, say, Sapphy (who it's just impossible NOT to give a billion lines to, lol). I'll try to get you in more in the future, how's that? Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**Dakki:** SWUMLETS! AHAHA! AHOY! Ok I'm all right ... I loved you interpretation of "the elevator of doom". Brilliant, I daresay! We have to co-write a story sometime, shall we? Lol, thanks for reviewing! (I have to read Lord of the Flies, it seems I'm the only one here who hasn't read it yet ... I've been told it's required for ninth grade English, so I've got a little time. Is it any good or just disturbing and creepy?)

**SpotLover421:** I AM FACED WITH A DILEMMA! HELP ME! I really wanted Spot and Race to be gay but apparently they've already flirted waaay too much with the other girls for that to happen ... any thoughts? Just wondering. Thanks so much for the review, I love ya!!

-----

**Author's Note: **PHEW! Man that was long ... And all those shoutouts! Thanks to all reviewers, and I just want to say I'm sorry if you didn't get as many lines as you would have hoped. In theory everyone will get a little narration section so just be patient, your time will come. ;-) I love you all!!!

-Saturday


	4. Chapter Three: Insanity Taking Hold

**Author's Note:** Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am FINALLY updating. I hope you guys don't hate me ... too much. ((ducks as everyone throws rotten tomatoes at me))

**Disclaimer:** I own Keenan, Bradford, and Stewart. Basically, anyone who wears a lab coat. And the Island is also mine. (Am I the only person who wants to go live there?)

-----

**_"Insanity — a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world."_**

**_-R D Lang_**

-----

"A bit off his rocker, don't you think?" said Josh Bradford quietly, nodding towards Dr Stewart on the other side of the room.

Keenan poured some cream into his coffee and stirred it. "Nah," he answered after a minute, a half-grin tugging at the corner of his thin mouth. "Just a little desperate for attention."

"Why do you say that?"

"Doesn't want to admit to himself that his time's passed." The two of them sat down at a table together. "I mean, think about it. The man was the genius of his time, the shining star of the university — and now he's ten years gone without a successful experiment."

Bradford raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Keenan nodded, running a hand through his coarse iron gray hair. He took a sip of his coffee and looked over at Stewart, who was sitting by himself drinking his coffee and reading a documentary. Crazy lunatic and his harebrained experiments ... The man was going to get himself thrown into an insane asylum soon if he wasn't careful. One more fruitless experiment was all that it would take...

"Do you think it'll work?" asked Bradford.

Keenan looked up. "What?"

"His experiment. On the teenagers on the Island. Do you think he'll be successful?"

A grin spread over Keenan's face and he chuckled. "Are you serious?" he asked. Bradford just looked at him, and he sighed. "Of course not, the whole thing's a ridiculous last attempt for glory. Honestly, I think all thirty-six of the teenagers are going to die of starvation, and the men in white coats will come and take Stewart away."

"Isaacs thinks it's gonna work," said Bradford.

"Well Isaacs isn't quite the sharpest knife in the drawer, is he?"

Bradford looked blankly at him again. Keenan took another swallow of coffee. This Bradford kid was quite an odd duck, he decided. A little too thoughtful. When he, Keenan, had been in his late twenties like this one, he had been a happy go lucky kid with a degree in psychology.

And now he was an ill-tempered fifty-year-old with a degree in psychology and nothing to show for it.

Funny how things work out that way, he thought musingly.

"Do you really think they're going to send Stewart to the asylum?" asked Bradbury.

Keenan took another sip of his coffee. "Shut up, kid."

-----

**_Skittery _**

I'm willing to admit that, within reason, I am a pretty paranoid dude. My name fits my personality pretty well, but I'd like to make it perfectly clear to all that it is _not_ my fault that I'm this way.

Why, you ask? Let's just say I didn't exactly have the nicest childhood.

It was the classic story; my dad was a drunken bastard and abandoned my mom and me when I was about five. We struggled financially for a year or so, and then she made the _brilliant_ decision to go into prostitution.

2031 AD. You'd think that shit doesn't go on anymore.

Well guess what? It does.

I lost my virginity at age nine, my mother at ten, my mind at eleven. And then, on top of all that, I realized that I was actually gay and had no interest in girls whatsoever.

Do you have any idea what stuff like that can _do_ to a guy?? Homosexuality isn't accepted anymore — it goes against the format for society, and society nowadays is based almost completely on conformity. So there I was: the orphan, the reject, the fag, sent to orphanage after orphanage but never really having a home.

I gave up the name Michael long ago. Skittery fit me much better than anything else.

In a way, this bizarre Island was the best thing that had happened to me so far. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people who acted vaguely like they kind of liked me. It was a new experience for me.

And then there was Snitch.

I liked him from the moment I laid eyes on him two weeks ago, as cliché as it sounds. He came flying out of the "elevator of doom", as he called it, crashed into me, flung his arms around me, and the pair of us fell backwards into the sand. His chin hit the bridge of my nose, and for about twenty seconds I was literally blinded with pain with him sitting there spurting out apologies a mile a minute.

Yeah, it was love at first sight.

And then, just as I was recovering, Scout came flying out of _her_ elevator of doom and crushed the pair of us all over again. At least she didn't almost break my nose...

So, if you think about it, my acute paranoia was perfectly logical and completely out of my control. I had a pretty fucked up childhood, and now for the first time I actually had something good. To be honest, I was kinda worried that one day I'd wake up and be back at the orphanage, and all this would just be a dream.

"Skitts? You all right?"

I blinked and looked up to see Snitch standing over me, looking concerned. "What?"

"You all right?"

"Oh ... yep."

He sat down next to me and stuck his feet in the sand. "Mind if I hide here with you? Spitfire, Scout, and Flare want to see what I'd look like with my hair in a hundred little ponytails," he said, shuddering visibly.

I laughed. "Sure."

I looked dreamily out over the ocean, watching the shadows slowly lengthen. (I'm hopelessly romantic, I know, Scout likes to pantomime throwing up whenever I get into this frame of mind...) "Y'know," I said after a minute, "this whole island thing ain't that bad."

"Yeah. I mean, once you get over the initial shock of getting dumped on some obscure landmass in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason," he said seriously. "At least Sapphy stopped destroying our food."

I ran a hand through my hair, which was even more tousled than usual as a result of two weeks in this place, and licked my lips, thinking about what I was about to say. "It's just..."

"Hmm?" He looked at me, eyebrows raised. "Aw c'mon, Skitts, you can't just leave me hangin' like that."

"Well it all just seems too perfect," I said very fast, trying to get it all out at once. "Like, have you ever gotten the feeling that there's something..." I looked out over the ocean again.

"FINISH YOUR SENTENCES!" he yelled.

"That there's some other animal or something out there?"

"What do you mean?"

I leaned closer a little so that our faces were only a couple inches apart. "I know you're just going to call me paranoid, everyone does, but sometimes I feel like there's some other animal living in the jungle that's been following us. I've only been in there a couple times, but I keep hearing things. Leaves crunching behind us, you know? But when I look, there's nothing there."

I sat back, waiting for him to laugh, but he never did. In fact, he looked mildly interested. "You know, Cat said something like that to me a little while back. Said she was getting all creeped out on the second day when we all split up for food."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah ... but you know Cat, I just thought she was messin' with my mind and didn't take her seriously. But now..." He shrugged. "Do you think we should tell the others?"

_"FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD! HOT SAUSAGE AND MUSTARD! WHILE WE'RE IN THE MOOD, COLD JELLY AND CUSTARD!"_ sang Bandit, hopping over to us. "Heya fellas, dinner's ready. And no, Sapphy didn't make it. Nani did, and it smells friggin' good, and she made up a song to go with it so come and eat!"

I grabbed him by the collar of his t-shirt and pulled him down onto the sand. "Have _you_ been hearing creepy things in the forest?" I demanded.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise (which caused his eyebrow piercing to look rather funny). "No ... yes."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean??"

"I'm not sure."

"YOU GUYS COMIN'?" Braids bellowed from where our official camp was set up.

"You're such a mother," we heard Spot cackle.

"Am NOT!"

Bandit ran a hand through his hair, nose wrinkling up as he thought. "I mean, every once and a while I hear stuff — just small things, chipmunks and all that shit. But then the other night I heard something else..."

"What'd it sound like?" I asked, intrigued.

"Like an animal moving around, close to our camp. A big one, I guess." He shrugged. "I dunno, maybe I'm just imagining it, I mean it _was_ real early in the morning and I had a was trying to get all this sand out of my mouth; I was still pretty tired ... Anyway, I'm not even sure I've been completely right in the head since Marie—" He broke off and put his hand over his shoulder.

"Who's Marie?" asked Snitch interestedly.

"No one." Bandit stood up abruptly. "C'mon, guys, let's go and eat." And with that he walked quickly away, hands in his pockets, head bowed.

Snitch and I looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Then I shrugged, and the pair of us got up too and followed in his footprints.

After spending two weeks with the same people, it surprised me that there were still secrets about some of them that I didn't know yet.

Oh well. I've never been the most perceptive person, anyway.

-----

**_Alaska _**

"So then I was like, 'Listen, dude, if you don't get the hell away from me, I'm gonna pour my Tabasco sauce down your pants'," said Bel dramatically, gesturing animatedly.

"If he had been like that to me, I woulda just peed on him," said Spot and took a bite of his mango. Braids smacked his shoulder, laughing.

"Well I don't have a penis, so I don't have as much control over where my pee goes," said Bel calmly. "Anyway—" she turned back to the rest of us and her voice grew dramatic again "—and so then he's all, 'Make me!' and I'm like, 'Fine!' And I take out my handy bottle of Tabasco sauce that I carry with me at all times, grabbed him by his back pocket and—"

We were all choking on our dinner by now, and Chris had fallen over on top of Specs because she was laughing so hard.

"Did you really do that to your _brother_??" Mush laughed.

Bel nodded. "He was only five years older than me, I could take him..."

"I really want a raison right now," said Sapphy, poking at our little bonfire with a stick to get it to heat up more.

"You know," said King thoughtfully, "I like it better here than back in the real world."

A moment of silence followed her statement, and I dropped my mango. "So do I," said Nova after a couple seconds. "It seems ... more real?" She said the last few words very slowly, as if they didn't make any sense.

They made perfect sense to me.

I picked up my mango and blew on it, hoping the sand would come off. It didn't. I was just about to go and dunk it in the ocean to see if that would do any good, but before I could so much as move, I heard a rustling noise directly behind me in the forest.

It sounded like the noise squirrels make when the scamper across dry leaves, only about ten times louder. I turned around slowly, eyebrow raised, but there was nothing there. The noise stopped.

I looked back at the rest of the guys. They were all staring at the forest, eyes wide. "That's it," Skittery murmured to Snitch, nudging him in the ribs. "That's the noise I was telling you about."

"So you've heard it before?" I said to him.

He looked up at me, obviously nervous that I would make fun of him or something. "Um ... yeah. Just a couple times," he added hastily. "But ... well they call me Skittery for a reason, and that noise has been totally creeping me out." He looked around at everyone else as if expecting them to laugh.

"I've heard it too," said Swifty after a minute.

"You have??" Skittery looked appraisingly at him.

"Yep. Scared the shit outta me, I had half a mind to go and stick my head in the ocean just to make sure I wasn't hearing things."

Classic Swifty thing to say.

Sapphy shifted on Race's lap, where she had been happily sitting. He groaned a little and tried to wriggle free, but she ignored him. "So I'm not the only one? I thought I was just losing my mind..."

"Don't worry, you're just as sane as I am," said Swifty, smiling devilishly at her.

"Oh _that's_ reassuring," she said sarcastically.

"Sapphy, get off me, you elephant," said Race fondly.

"I ... I think I saw something the other night," said Bumlets quietly from behind his shaggy black bangs. We all looked at him and he leaned back, apparently taken aback by all the attention.

"Well??" Coin prompted, throwing her mango at him.

"It was real late, and I couldn't sleep 'cause Swifty was snoring," he said. "I was considering shoving my shirt into his mouth to shut him up—"

"Hmm, never thought of that," said Ershey pensively.

"—and then I heard a noise — like that one we just heard. It was about a hundred feet away 'cause I always sleep at the edge of our camp—"

"Antisocial oddball," said Sapphy affectionately, taking a bite out of her fish.

"—but the noise didn't disappear this time the way it usually does. You know how when you look over at it, it usually stops and there's nothing there? Well it didn't this time, it kept going and then..." Bumlets looked kind of out of breath from all this talking, which was understandable considering he spoke an average of three words a day.

"YES??" said Dutchy excitedly. (Actually, screw that last part; the kid was always excited, so there's no point mentioning it now.)

Bumlets folded up the empty skin of his mango and pushed it into the sand. "Well, this big shadow came slowly outta the forest, by where Soaker and Granny were sleeping. I couldn't really see its shape 'cause, you know, it was like midnight or whatever, but I could tell it was huge. It didn't do anything — just stood there for a minute and looked at me. And then it sorta walked away around the edge of the forest."

We all stared at him. "How come you didn't tell us?" King demanded, voicing what everyone else was wondering.

"You must have been scared out of your MIND," I gasped.

Bumlets drew a pattern in the sand with his finger. "I dunno..." he said softly. "I didn't want to be a bother to anyone..."

"BE A BOTHER??" Swifty repeated incredulously. "Bumlets, a big black thing came hopping out of the forest and gave you the evil eye!! You should have told someone, we wouldn't have been BOTHERED by you! Stupid considerate moron..."

Bumlets managed to pull of a half-assed smile as Swifty smacked his chest.

I, on the other hand, was not in the mood to smile. "Guys, you do realize what this means, right?" I said.

"That I'm gonna have competition for my special pee-place tonight?" said Spot. "_I'm _supposed to be peeing over by Soaker and Granny. Stupid animal, why can't it find it's own toilet..."

"Why are you so pee-oriented today?" Braids demanded as Soaker and Granny pretty much shriveled up and died.

"IT MEANS," I continued loudly, "that we're no longer just the hunter. We're the prey too. You understand that, don't you? _There's something out there hunting us."_

That was enough to get Spot to stop making jokes about pee.

"Do you — do you really think so?" asked Coin nervously.

Emily looked back at the forest, her angular features outlined in the firelight. "Just because there's some creepy animal in the forest, it doesn't mean it's out to get us," she said reasonably. "I mean, haven't you guys read Dark Lord of Derkholm?"

Everyone stared at her. "You read _books_?" asked Flare, a look of astonishment on her face. "Where the hell do you _get_ them?"

Emily shrugged awkwardly and shrank back into the shadows. "There are still a few books out there," said David suddenly, coming to her rescue. "I read all the time."

"But it's _illegal_," said Jack. (I almost laughed; he looked so funny when he was surprised.)

"Well yeah, but it's worthwhile." David smiled at Emily, who blushed very slightly and pulled her knees up to her chest. "And I've read Dark Lord of Derkholm. It's a good book."

"I don't get it," said Race, squirming from under Sapphy. "Why the hell would you read a book if you could just as easily play a video game where it actually _takes you there_?"

Emily looked kind of embarrassed. "When I read, it's like I'm there..." she said. "I kind of get lost in the book, you know?"

"Yeah," said David.

We all just stared at them. "Okay!" said Irish in a very Wayne-Campbell-esque fashion, brushing her hair behind her ears. "In any case, there is a big animal hopping around out there and we don't know what it is. What should we do?"

The way she said it made everyone laugh. "I vote we go to bed!" yelled Bandit, and he leaned against King and promptly fell asleep.

I'm not kidding. He seriously fell asleep just like that. How the guy does it, none of us will ever know...

"I agree with Bandit," said Itey in mid-yawn. "If I have to eat another bite of fish, I'm going to hurl all over Specs."

Specs stiffened slightly and scowled at him. "That is NOT funny."

"And I'll sing you all a lullaby!" said Nani excitedly.

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY EITHER!" yelled Specs.

-----

**_Shoutouts!!!_**

**__**

**ershey: **Yes. Mangos are officially the best food on the planet, next to red onions. And now — ((takes out magic wand)) — I dub you Namer of the Places on the Island. You are now officially allowed to call it "Mush Beach" and "David Hill" and all that good stuff. Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**tinydanceremily:** God, I love Elton John. And I love you, because your name always makes me think of Elton John. And because you're so incredibly _agreeable_! HOW DO YOU DO IT!?! lol, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**Madison Square:** My dialogue describes action?? I feel so ... good-writer-ish!! (Ohh I can just _see_ my English teacher shriveling up right now...) Thank you SO MUCH for the review, I love ya!

**Repeat:** HAHA! My romance (or lack there of) doesn't smell either ... of course, you guys are stuck on an island without any showers, and I'm planning on keeping you all there for at least a month. Dude, even _Spot's_ gonna be looking pretty grim by the end of this story ... I suppose then your romance will smell quite lovely. Lol, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**KyrielF:** I feel so bad that I'm making Skittery gay ... I just figured that I'd rather have all the Skittery fans hate me than one love me and the rest hate me and each other. (Wow, my logic confuses me...) Ah well, I'll have you guys hangin' out together, ok? Thanks for the review, I love ya!

**Written Sparks:** _Note to Self: Next chapter must have section from Nova's point of view._ Don't let me forget!! I'm so sorry I haven't had her as outgoing as you'd like, I'm having issues keeping track of all of the personalities. (This could quite possibly be the last casting call story I do, I have a tendency to focus on like three or four of the characters and ignore the rest. It's not because I don't love you guys, though, I ADORE Nova!) Thanks for reviewing!! :-D

**Soaker:** I must put you in more. I think all I did with you this time was have Spot threatening to pee on you, and that just ain't right, lol. Thanks for reviewing!!

**SpotLover421:** Yeah, I had to have Spot running around shirtless at one point. I think it's happened in every single one of my stories where he is one of the main characters. That's just sad ... Anyway, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**Sapphy:** ((dangles fish in front of your face)) Ohh I'm so evil ... ((starts to cry)) That was MEAN! I feel HORRIBLE, I'm sorry, I won't do it again... ((gives fish to Bumlets)) Thank you so much for the review, you cracked me up! MWAH!

**nani at 12 o'clock:** Yes, I like Spot with no shirt on. Maybe I'll have him lose it later on so that he'll be FORCED to walk around shirtless ... Ohh I can see it now ... ((cackles evilly)) Thank you for your review and the good ideas your reviews give me, lol!

**Coin:** lol! Yes, I would like nothing more than for Racetrack to throw himself on top of me. ((cuddles him)) ((Race runs away looking terrified)) They always seem to do that ... ah well, thanks so much for the review, I love ya!

**klover:** THANK YOU! ((hugs you))

**Ccatt:** lol!! I snort all the time when I laugh, it's really quite embarrassing ... Thanks so much for the review, I love ya!

**Cassies-Grandma:** Awwww, I'm sorry!! :-D I tried not to mention your height in this chapter, did you notice? Lol, thanks for the review, I love ya!

**Scout73:** SWOON! A good word, I daresay. SWOON SWOON SWOOOOOON! Just makes you want to sing, doesn't it? ((begins singing)) I like to swooooooooon, by the light of the moooooooooooon, in a blue lagoooooooooooon, with the newsie named Boooooooooooooots!! ((Boots runs away looking terrified)) lol, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**Dakki:** BLUSHTRACK! God I love you, Dakki, we MUST MUST write something together (although it would be complete bedlam, don't you think?) Anyway, tell Dalton that I love him because I do. He's hysterical. Thanks for reviewing, I love you!! :-D

-----

**Author's Note:** Omg my reviewers are so NICE!! I love you guys to death, thanks SOOOOOOOO much for reviewing! And I shall now go and finish my homework because, unfortunately, I do have a life and teachers who like to torture me. Leave a review and I'll love you forever!!

-Saturday


	5. Chapter Four: You've Been Punk'd!

**Author's Note: **WOO HOO, I'M FINALLY UPDATING! HOORAY! 

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything except the Island itself; the newsies belong to Disney, and the rest of the characters mentioned belong to their respective owners. Oh and by the way, in case y'all were wondering, Sapphy and I are moving to the Island when the story is over and we're calling it ... (dramatic pause) ... SATURAPPHY ISLAND! WOO HOO! 

**Dedication: **HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SCOUTY!! ((tackles you)) I'm sorry this is a few days late ... And yes, I solemnly vow never to call you "Scouty" in public again. :-D 

----- 

**_"You said I'm gonna buy this place and burn it down_**

**_I'm gonna put it six feet underground _**

**_You said I'm gonna buy this place and watch it fall_**

**_Stand here beside me baby in the crumbling walls_**

**_Oh I'm gonna buy this place and start a fire_**

**_Stand here until I fill all your heart's desires_**

**_Because I'm gonna buy this place and see it burn_**

**_And do back the things it did to you in return" _**

**_-Coldplay, "A Rush of Blood to the Head"_**

****

-----

**_Swifty _**

**__**

"I've never been on a frog hunt before," I confessed, looking down at the sand. "Is it hard?"

"Nah," said Bumlets.

We were walking along the edge of the water, looking for frogs. Don't ask, it was Bumlets' idea. I think he has a sort of frog fetish or something...

Well I guess that makes sense; they're small and adorable and huggable and only make noise when they have to. He could probably relate to a pet frog more than another human being, come to think of it.

I honestly didn't think we would find any frogs in the ocean. Neither did Bumlets. Nevertheless, we were going on a frog-hunt anyway.

"Where do you learn how to do all this shit, anyway?" I asked.

"What shit?"

"Like frog-hunting and fishing and stuff." I bent down and picked up a smooth stone from the sand, rubbing it between my fingers. "I mean, I'd never even seen a real ocean before — one that's not all polluted and stuff — and here you were, knowing how to stab a fish down the middle with a pointy stick." I skipped the stone across the water and let out a low whistle.

Bumlets chucked. I loved making him laugh. He just had this great laugh, real quiet and shy, and it made everything seem so much more intimate — like he was laughing just for me, y'know?

Hopeless romantic? Oh yeah, baby.

"I dunno..." he said after a minute. "I feel like I just know this stuff. I don't know where I learned to do it."

THREE WHOLE SENTENCES!! WOO HOO!

I wasn't sure if he was telling me the whole truth or not, but I decided to let it go and focused myself wholly and completely on frog hunting. Bumlets was an interesting guy, kind of socially awkward, but that was why I loved him.

As a friend.

Ack.

"I see one!" I yelled, running forward and throwing myself onto the sand. (We had all completely given up on trying to keep our clothes clean. Mush had actually thrown his shirt away because it had gotten so filthy, and a permanently shirtless Mush hopping around on an island made everyone happy.)

It wasn't a frog. It wasn't even alive.

"What the fuck..." I mumbled, picking it up and sitting back on my knees.

"What is it?" asked Bumlets. I didn't answer him, so he dragged himself over to me and sat down too. His eyebrows shot up when he saw what I was holding, and he took it gently from my hands and looked it over.

"It looks like a video camera or somethin'," I said unnecessarily. "Like the security cameras you see when you go into a public store — but why the hell would one be _here_?"

Bumlets shook his head and turned the thing over in his hands. "It's solar powered."

"How'd you know?"

"See the solar panels on the side?" He pointed them out to me, imprinted on the side of the small camera. "That's where the camera collects the energy from the sun."

I frowned at the thing. "Somebody must have put it here, then, but it's not supposed to be in the sand by the water," I said slowly. "It's perfectly designed to withstand the elements — look, it's wicked hard and small and it looks waterproof, too."

"It..." Bumlets looked shyly up at me, black eyes almost embarrassed. "It kinda looks like it's supposed to be attached to a tree or something, y'know?"

"You think so?" I asked. I took it back from him and entertained the idea for a minute. "I guess that kind of makes sense..."

"I dunno. It just looks the right shape, and it's got this weird clip on the side."

A thought struck me, and I looked at him suddenly. "Bumlets—" I said. "Bumlets, do you think there are _more_ of these things? I mean think about it, there could be hundreds of 'em all over the place. Are we, like, being constantly filmed or somethin' screwy like that?"

A grin tugged up the corner of that gorgeous full mouth of his, and his black eyes glittered. "Wanna find 'em?"

"What?"

"The other cameras. Let's go find them." And with that he got up and headed straight for the trees behind him.

Ladies and gentlemen, Bumlets Thayar. Quiet, blunt, but full of hidden enthusiasm and passion. God, I love that man.

As a friend.

Ahh.

I hauled myself to my feet and hurried after him, running a hand through my thick red-black hair. "Do you really think there are more of them?"

"Well this one can't be a coincidence."

"Point taken." The pair of us made our way into the woods, checking as many trees as we could. "Why do you think we've never found one before?" I asked after a minute or so. "I mean, we've been on this Island for what — three or four weeks? And we've never seen anything like _that_."

"Camouflage," he said, and handed me the camera.

I looked at it. It was exactly the color of the hundreds of tree trunks around us. "Oh," I said. Bumlets just smiled at me and continued to search the trees.

It was another ten minutes before we found what we were looking for: another small camera, identical to the one I was holding, nestled carefully between two large branches way above our heads. "Sweet," I muttered. "How do we get it down? I'm just 5'8, I'm not tall enough to..." I trailed off, looking at Bumlets. He was grinning evilly at me. "Oh no. NO. You are NOT getting on my shoulders."

"We need to get that camera," he reminded me.

I scowled at him, weighing my options. On the one hand, I could refuse and spare myself the pain (and humiliation, might I add) of having a sixteen-year-old boy on my shoulders. On the other hand, I _did_ want that camera.

And Bumlets _was_ shirtless.

"Fine," I said grumpily, and bent down so that he could climb onto my back.

-----

**_Nova _**

_"HOW HIGH DOES THE SYCAMORE GROW?"_ sang Nani loudly (in a surprisingly good singing voice, might I add). "_IF YOU CUT IT DOWN, THEN YOU'LL NEVER KNOW! AND YOU'LL NEVER HEAR THE WOLF CRY TO THE BLUE CORN MOON, FOR WHETHER WE ARE WHITE OR COPPER SKINNED ... WE NEED TO SING WITH ALL THE VOICES OF THE MOUNTAIN! WE NEED TO PAINT WITH ALL THE COLORS OF THE WIIIIIIIND!"_

"And the wind blows ever so gracefully through her hair!" I yelled, hopping up and wiggling my fingers in a rather Wayne-and-Garth fashion to represent the classic Pocahontas wind.

_"YOU CAN OWN THE EARTH AND STILL ALL YOU'LL OWN IS EARTH UNTIL YOU CAN PAINT—"_

"Ack, stop!" Braids yelled. "Where's John Smith?!?"

Everyone froze. "DUTCHY!" Nani exclaimed, grabbing his wrist and pulling him onto the "stage".

"Why me?" Dutchy demanded.

"'Cause you have the hair," said Nani, poking it.

"GUYYYYYYYYYS!" someone yelled from the forest.

"Hark! 'Tis the sound of the sweet wood nymphs which inhabit the magical forest!" said Bel.

We all turned to see Bumlets and Swifty sprinting towards us, their arms full of some sort of ... hell, I had no idea what they were carrying.

"And lo and behold, here they are!" said Bel happily, clapping her hands in spontaneous delight.

"Aw shut up, Bel," said Swifty fondly, dumping the stuff onto the sand at her feet. _"This_—" He held one under her nose. "—is what Bumlets and I have been collecting for the past hour and a half."

"But I thought you were frog hunting..." said Flare confusedly. Race laughed and patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"What the hell?" Bel took the thing and looked it over. "What is this, a camera?"

"We've been Punk'd!!" said Sapphy excitedly.

"They're all over the forest, stuck in trees and stuff," said Swifty. "One of them had been knocked out and was sittin' in the sand, and I picked it up 'cause I thought it was a frog. But I mean dude, if I hadn't been so incredibly thick, we'd probably never have found them..."

"Whoa, wait, you found _all these_ in the forest?" Irish demanded, picking one up and peering into the lens.

"Yeah. Well Bumlets found most of 'em, but I found this one!" said Swifty. He pointed to one of them enthusiastically, but nobody was really listening.

"Are you trying to say that we've been on _film_ this entire time?" demanded Spitfire.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Braids, cut it out," said Spot calmly, slapping her cheek. She stopped screaming and scowled at him (or tried to, anyway).

"Why the hell would anyone want to film _us_?" King chuckled.

"Think about it," said Alaska. "I mean, I think we've grown a little too used to being on this Island. We still don't know why we're here — for all we know, we could be part of some huge scientific experiment on human nature or something."

There was a dull silence. "Actually, that's probably exactly why we _are_ here," said Emily.

There was another dull silence. Braids opened her mouth to scream again, but Spot slapped her before she could make any noise. She slapped him back.

"You really think so?" said Kyriel, looking extremely creeped out.

"I don't know..." said Emily, and she crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at the sand.

"It makes sense," David justified, stepping forward. "Why else would we all be here with such similar conditions? Why else would there be little _cameras_ stuck in the trees? I'm beginning to think we're all just pawns in some bigger chess game that none of us understand..."

Coin stared at him. "Dude, you're the only person I have ever met who actually talks in metaphors."

"This is screwy..." Chris groaned. She took out a cigarette, felt around in her pockets, remembered she didn't have a lighter, stuck the cigarette back into her pocket, and looked about ready to cry.

"Well the solution is obvious," said Scout (looking very proud of herself for using a big word like "solution"). "We can't just allow ourselves to be used like this. We gotta fight back!"

"YEAH!" yelled Soaker, slapping her a high five.

Sapphy hopped onto Race's shoulders. "THE STUPID PEOPLE CONDUCTING THE HYPOTHETICAL EXPERIMENT, THEY THINK WE'RE NOTHIN'! ARE WE NOTHIN'?"

"NO!" we all yelled.

"THE STUPID PEOPLE CONDUCTING THE HYPOTHETICAL EXPERIMENT, THEY THINK THEY GOT US! DO THEY GOT US?"

"NO!" everyone yelled again.

No. Not everyone. Most of us were yelling, but there were a few people who were looking extremely shifty. Granny rounded on them, eyebrows raised. "What's up with you guys?"

Jack tilted his head to the side and drew a design on the sand with his toe. "I dunno..." he said, sounding uncharacteristically quiet. "I guess..."

"TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME!" said Cat, hopping up and down. (Spaz.)

"It's just ... I don't wanna sound corny or anything, but this is the happiest I've ever been. Here."

Bandit was rubbing his forearm. I noticed that he did that a lot when he was feeling under pressure. "Yeah, I've actually had a pretty fucked up childhood too. With Marie—"

King looked at him. "Are you ever going to explain about this Marie?"

"She was ... she was my younger sister." Bandit was looking awkward, rubbing his forearm harder than ever and carefully not meeting our eyes. "Man, she was real little. My best friend in the world after Mom and Dad died, and then she got leukemia..."

"Holy shit..." Boots murmured.

"The orphanage couldn't pay for the expenses. She died 'bout three month after she was diagnosed." There was an odd, hollow quality to Bandit's voice, and his face was suddenly mask-like.

None of us could think of anything to say. "I'm real sorry, man," said Blink after a minute.

Bandit pulled off his shirt. There on his forearm, bright against his brown skin, was a tattoo of an angel with the name "Marie" printed underneath. "I got it a week after she died," he said dully. "Once I was able to drag myself out of the house."

"My older brother died when I was six. All the more reason to fight back, don't you think? If the world hates you, ya gotta learn to deal with it, to retaliate," said Spot sagely.

"You don't get it, do you?" Bandit snapped, pulling his shirt back on. "She was all I had. My life after she's gone has been complete _hell_, and the last thing I want to do is give up the only place I've ever been fucking happy in and go back to the way things were."

"Some of us _were_ happy where we were, though," said Scout quietly.

"I'm aware of that," said Bandit coolly.

"And we don't want to be used like this. I want out." She pulled her cap on over her hair and stood up. "Who's with me?"

Emily, David, Swifty, Spot, Flare, Irish, Race, Mush, Ershey, Snitch, Granny, Soaker, Sapphy, Cat, Braids, and Alaska were. The remaining 17 of us were overwhelmed, but we stood our ground.

"Fine," said Jack.

"Great," said Scout.

"I'll see you around," said Jack.

"Aw shut up..." said Scout, and she stormed off down the beach. The others looked at each other and followed her, leaving the rest of us standing awkwardly on the sand. Skittery and Kyriel sat down on the sand and began to play rock-paper-scissors-shoot out of pure boredom.

After a minute, Swifty came back and pulled the heap of cameras into his arms, carefully avoiding Bumlets' eyes.

-----

Shoutouts!!! 

**singin'-newsies-goil: **I FORGOT YOUR SHOUTOUT?!?! AHH!!

**singin'-newsies-goil:** Ha, now you have two. Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**TechniColor DreamGirl:** All right, I am officially in love with Bandit. Can I keep him? :-D You have like the best characters in the whole story, seriously. Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**uninvisible:** HAHAHA! SHEEPISH! Like in "Aladdin" and the genie goes "Ohh I feel sheepish" and then he turns into a SHEEP!! WOO HOO! ...Wow, I'm tired. Thanks for reviewing, I love you!!

**Written Sparks:** Yeah, it broke my heart to make Skittery gay ... But I figured that I had so many girls wanting him to go out with them, I might as well have him go out with Snitch and then everyone will be happy! HOORAY! lol, thanks for reviewing!

**SpotLover421:** You, my dear, had the best reviews ever. ((gives you flowers))

**blackblood:** Aww thank you so much!! ((grins like an idiot)) Ohh and now I'm grinning like an idiot. WONDERFUL. Thanks for reviewing, I love ya! (And I'm REALLY sorry I can't give you a part in the story, but I'm having trouble keeping track of all these characters as it is...)

**Soaker:** I need to give you more lines. So far you've been scared of raw fruit, you've done a high five with Scout, and you've been peed on. That's really cruel and unusual punishment, isn't it? I'm sorry!! ((cries))

**Ershey:** LOL!! You are a NUT and I love you for it ... I love Keenan too. He's like my favorite character. I have no life. Anyway, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**KyrielF:** My favorite pairing is actually Swifty/Bumlets. It's gonna be like my trademark pairing or something, I LOVE THEM TOGETHER! Snittery's awesome too, though (which is why it's in this story). HOORAY FOR SLASH! lol, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**Ccatt:** ACK I had to sleep in my cousin's room once when I was visiting his family (he was in college) and the ENTIRE ROOM was covered in cat hair. ((shudders)) lol, thanks for the review, I love ya!

**Matchin' Laces:** A pair o' new shoes with Matchin' Laces! HAHA! Mush wants a pair of new shoes and YOU! Wow, I'm pathetic. Thanks for reviewing!

**Bookey Elliot:** MAN I love you, you always make me so damn HAPPY! Thanks SO MUCH for reviewing!! (Naked Spots? Yes sir.)

**Scout73:** Actually, as a child Spot had enuresis and it kind of messed with his mind. :-D I'M SORRY I TOOK YOUR SNITCHY AWAY!! AHH I FEEL HORRIBLE! Perfectly miserable, as a matter of fact, a phrase which I only use under perfectly miserable circumstances. ((sobs))

**nani at 12 o'clock:** Yes, I think I _will_ have Spottie darling lose his shirt. :-D My dad goes fishing all the time too, but I'm really not into it ... I'm such a girl, it's really sad. Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!!

**tinydanceremily:** Ah, you're introverted too, I see. Introverted compulsive writers unite!! WOO HOO! I adore Elton John, he's like my hero. Lol, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!!

**Madison Square:** Yeah, the whole creepy animal thing was scaring me. Notice I didn't mention it at all in this story. ;-) Thanks for reviewing, I love ya!!

**Repeat: **I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry... ((cries)) ((runs away and sing Cher songs)) ((kills all life as we know it))

**Lady of Tir Na Nog:** Dude, your penname reminds me of Monty Python. WE ARE THE LADIES WHO SAY "TIR NA NOG"!! Hahaha ... yeah, I crack myself up. Thanks for the review, I love you!! (And don't worry, nobody's gonna die, lol.)

**Coin:** YAY! I LOVE YOU!! Thanks for reviewing! :-D

**Cassies-Grandma:** Yes, notice that Spot didn't mention peeing ONCE throughout the whole story. WOO HOO!! Thanks for the review, I love ya!!

**Sapphy:** Yeah, I couldn't resist having you eat a little fish ... All right, I've had my fun, I'm done with the fish jokes. :-D And no more elephant jokes, either! Lol, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**Dakki:** YES! Ahaha, I can see it now, let us scare the public with our deliciously random co-written fic!! HOORAY! (And we'll do Mink, 'cause I love Dalton.) Thanks SO MUCH for reviewing, I love ya!!

-----

**Author's Note:** I LOVE LEX LUTHER!! ACK!

-Saturday


	6. Chapter Five: You're My Wonderwall

**Author's Note: **Augh, I feel like I haven't updated in YEARS! I hope you all can forgive me (if you're actually interested enough in this story to CARE whether or not I update); I've been kind of busy lately. ((coughs))

**Disclaimer:** I own The Island and anybody who wears a lab coat. Any other characters belong to their respective owners, the newsies belong to Disney, and any song lyrics belong to their respective bands or artists.

-----

**_"You got something against sheep?" I asked, crumpling a piece of notebook paper up and making a basket in his trashcan._**

**_"Only that sheep follow," said Ezra. "Never lead, just follow."_**

**_"It's a good thing for farmers when they do." I shifted positions, leaning back against his bed._**

**_"I don't want to be a sheep anymore," Ezra said._**

_-Phoenix Rising by Karen Hesse_

-----

**_Mush_**

**__**

"Come on, Mushie! We need your MANLY strength!" yelled Ershey, beckoning me over to where she and Scout, Snitch, Race, and Sapphy were trying to build some form of shelter.

"You need my manly strength to lift a couple of tree branches?" I asked skeptically.

"Well ... no. But you're the only other person here who knows the words to 'Anything Goes'."

I feel so loved.

I headed over to them, trying not to look too happy that Ershey wanted to sing with me. I guess they're right; girls really _do_ go for the theater geek guys! HOORAY! I'm just her type! We're going to get married and have kids and star on Broadway together and make millions and—

"You know, Mush, we didn't invite you over here so that you could zone out with an odd smile on your face," said Sapphy, poking me in the stomach. "OWW! Shit, Mush, I didn't realize how frickin' hard your tummy is..." She put her finger into her mouth and turned back to the pathetic excuse for a hut. "Maybe we should just go for the teepee look instead..."

"I like teepees!" said Race happily.

"Ohh, have you seen that version of Peter Pan when Tiger Lily and her Indians do their funky dance??" Ershey squealed. She crossed her arms over her chest, bent her knees slightly, and started tilting from side to side. "Ugga-wugga-meatball!" she chanted and then toppled onto the sand, laughing. "Aw c'mon, Race, don't try to tell me you haven't seen that!"

"Can't say I have," said Race, looking positively terrified. I saw him mouth the words "Ugga-wugga-meatball" as if to test them out. He shook his head bemusedly and turned back to our pathetic excuse for a hut with a slight sigh.

"Why do we have to build this stupid thing, anyway?" Snitch asked as he tried to prop the branches up with his shirt.

"What do you have against teepees?!" Race demanded.

Snitch rolled his eyes at him. "That's not what I meant. I meant why do we need shelter _now_? We've been here for like a month or two and we never had any shelter. Why are we wasting our time on it _now_?"

"Two reasons," said Scout, standing up. She was, surprisingly, very good at being a leader. She had always struck me as kind of quiet, but apparently she could be very forceful when she wanted to be. "Firstly — it's gonna rain tonight. For some strange reason it hasn't rained _at all_ since we got here, except for the first night, and I am under the impression that Ershey's gonna melt if she gets wet.

_"Ding dong, the witch is dead!"_ sang Sapphy happily, and she bounced over to Ershey and poked her in the ribs. _"Which old witch? The wicked witch! Ding dong, the wicked witch is deeeeaaaaaad!"_

"Aw get off me, Sapph," Ershey grumbled.

"HA! She doesn't DENY that she's gonna melt!" yelled Race victoriously. He and Sapphy linked arms and hopped around on the sand singing _"Ding dong, the wicked witch is deeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaad!"_, much to Ershey's annoyance.

"SECONDLY," said Scout loudly. I looked back at her, startled. I had forgotten she was making some sort of list. "Secondly," she repeated once Sapphy and Race had stopped dancing, "if you haven't noticed, we're on the opposite side of the island than we were before. And this side — well, it sucks."

"That's because it's the west side," said Snitch. We looked at him. "Someone told me a while ago that the east side of any island is the best one for some reason..."

Scout blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Sweet. ANYWAY, there aren't as many overhanging trees on this side to give us protection, and there's more prickly grass, and the waves come up higher. THEREFORE—"

She glared at Race and Sapphy, who were innocently humming "The Witch is Dead" behind Ershey, who looked close to tears. "Hey, it's not her fault that she melts when she gets wet!" I said.

"Yes it is!" Race insisted.

"Are people born Wicked? Or do they have Wickedness thrust upon them?" said Sapphy sagely. We all looked at her. She shrugged and started humming "No One Mourns the Wicked" under her breath.

Scout was obviously trying very hard not to be amused. "As I was saying—" She stopped. "I completely lost my train of thought."

"Therefore we need to build a shelter to protect us from the elements," said Snitch helpfully.

"Exactly! Thank you, Snitch, now let's get BACK to work, and NO MORE singing 'The Wizard of Oz' from you two." Upon seeing the identical evil grins cracking across both of their faces, however, she said quickly, "No, scratch that, no more singing AT ALL from you two."

"...dammit."

-----

**_Emily_**

**__**

"Well I think the first thing we need to do is destroy all of these cameras," said Swifty, flicking his hair back out of his eyes.

"A good idea, considering we _are_ talking directly in front of them and revealing all of our secret plans," said Irish, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"Point taken." Swifty motioned for us to move our little meeting over away from the heap of video cameras. "All right, as I was saying," he continued in a quieter voice, "I think we should destroy the cameras so that they can't watch us anymore. Otherwise, we can't be sure that they'll even _notice_ that we're doing anything, and we'll never get out of this shithole."

"I wouldn't go so far as to call it a shithole," said Alaska reasonably. "I mean it _has_ been a hell of a lot of fun here, but ... well, it just sucks that we're being used like this."

"Fine, just alter EVERYTHING I say!" cried Swifty in mock frustration, flinging himself back onto the sand. "David, take over."

David looked like a deer caught in headlights, unaccustomed to all this attention. _Man, is that what I look like when _I_ talk in front of crowds? _I thought rather amusedly.

David cleared his throat. "Well I was thinking that we should keep one camera," he said.

"Why the hell would we want to keep one camera?" asked Swifty, still lying on his back and apparently counting the clouds.

"Because ... 'cause it could be useful." He ran a hand through his curly hair and licked his lips. "I mean, how are the people running this potential experiment supposed to know our demands if we don't communicate to them, you know?"

"So you mean we should keep one camera to kind of ... express our demands to?" said Irish slowly.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Sounds good to me." She got up and walked back over to the heap of cameras. "I officially dub this camera—" She picked one up. "—the Special Communication Camera! HOORAY! The rest are going to be destroyed in any ways we can think of."

"Man, that cloud looks like David's hair!" said Swifty. We all looked at him. "Sorry..." he said, grinning sheepishly.

Alaska carefully placed a camera under her foot and unceremoniously stepped on it. It crushed beneath her foot. "Well, that worked nicely," she said happily, picking it up and tossing it to the side.

"Let's have a camera-crushing party!!" Swifty exclaimed. He leapt up, grabbed a handful of cameras, and began to happily squish them one by one.

Alaska watched him, obviously trying not to smile. "Who the hell decided to put him into this group, anyway?" she asked sardonically as Swifty began to belt out his own rendition of "Twist and Shout" by the Beatles. "I think his energy would put to much better use if he were getting food or something."

"_Well, squish all the cameras now! Squish all the cameras! Twist and shout! Twist and shout! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, Davey now! C'mon Davey! And help me squish all the cameras! Squish all the cameraaaaaaaas!"_

"I dunno," I said. "He's definitely making things a little more interesting, don't you think?"

We watched him grab Davey and try to get him to do the jitterbug on top of the cameras with him. Irish smiled. "I definitely agree," she laughed.

-----

**_Granny_**

**__**

_"Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you!"_ sang Braids and Spot loudly. _"By now you shoulda somehow realized what you gotta do! I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you nowwwwwwwww!"_

"What the hell's a wonderwall, anyway?" asked Soaker.

"I don't know, but it sounds sexy," said Spot.

"Ew," said Braids.

"Guys!" Flare whispered. "_Please_ try to be a little quieter, you're scaring all the bananas away!"

"Oh horrors!" said Spot blandly.

"Shut up, Spot, I heard you sleep-talking the other night about bananas running away from you," Braids laughed, hitting the back of his head.

Spot stopped dead in his tracks. "W-what did I say?"

Braids flung her arms out and cried, "NO! Come back, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you! I don't think peaches taste better than you, I was just kidding! NOO! Come BACK, bananas!!"

"Aw shut up," Spot snapped, pouting.

The six of us — that is, Soaker, Spot, Braids, Cat, Flare, and me — were on a mission for tonight's dinner. Once we had broken off from the other twenty or so people who wanted to stay on the Island, Scout had been extremely organized and split us up into groups: one for building the shelter, one for planning our "battle strategies", as she liked to call them, and one for getting food.

I was beginning to think that we really _were_ scaring all the bananas away; we had been in the forest for at least twenty minutes, and not one banana tree had manifested itself upon us.

Heh heh ... manifesting banana trees ... It sounds so _intimidating_!

"All right," said Cat impatiently as we waited for Spot to take a piss a few yards away. "This is getting ridiculous. If we don't find a banana tree soon, I'm heading back over to the other side of the island and uprooting one of _their_ trees."

"I really don't think that's a good idea..." I said. "They'll probably throw fish skeletons at you or something."

"I'll bring Spot," she said simply, shrugging.

"I heard that!" Spot yelled as he zipped up his pants. He came back over to us, trying to look pissed off.

"Glad you could join us," said Soaker. She wrinkled her nose as the faint smell of urine hit her. "Never mind, please go back over to your little toilet and spare us the smell."

Spot grinned. "Hey, it's not my fault that the people who made this goddamn island didn't give us toilet paper."

"You must admit, however, that you _do_ have a sadly overactive bladder," said Braids, linking her arm through his.

We all started to walk again (except Soaker, who skipped.) _"Let us gaily tread the measure! Make the most of fleeting leisure! Though the moments quickly die, greet them gaily as they fly! Greet them gaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiily—" _Here she hit a spectacular high note that made Spot pretend to start crying. _"—as they fly!"_

"Soprano I?" I asked.

"All the way, baby."

Suddenly there was a rustling of leaves directly behind us. We all whipped around to find ourselves face to face with a wall of trees and creepers — nothing out of the ordinary. "What do you think _that_ was?" Flare asked nervously after a minute of silence.

"Chipmunk," said Cat.

"Don't be ridiculous, that sounded a LOT bigger than a chipmunk," said Spot, his voice cracking.

"A squirrel then. C'mon, let's get out of here, I'm starving." Cat seemed to be trying to calm everyone down, but it wasn't working very well. I was definitely rather on edge; I almost broke my neck when Flare sneezed and I jumped...

About five minutes passed and the noise came again, closer this time. We froze. It came again, even closer. Whatever it was couldn't be more than five feet away. "I don't want to turn around," said Soaker quietly, her small form very tense. "I _really_ don't want to know what's making that noise."

"All right, on the count of three we're all gonna turn around," said Flare. "I mean, how bad can it be?"

"Don't SAY that!" Braids gasped.

Flare almost laughed. "Ok — one, two, THREE."

We turned slowly around, in time to see a large, dark figure slinking away into the shadows. This time, our reaction was not quite so calm. "IT'S GONNA EAT ME!" Spot shrieked, leaping into Braids' arms. Braids herself screamed and ran behind Soaker (not a good choice, considering she looked to be about 5'2), who screamed and ran behind Cat, who latched onto my leg, trembling.

I hate being tall.

I covered my eyes with my hands. _Think lovely thoughts, think lovely thoughts, think lovely thoughts... _I'm too YOUNG to die!!

"Braids?" I heart Spot say behind me. "If I die, I want you to know that I think you're pretty cool."

"You're cool too, Spot," said Braids, sniffing.

"We're ALL cool!" said Cat happily, apparently forgetting her fear for a minute. She remembered after a few seconds, however, and latched back onto my leg.

"...Thank you," said Soaker.

"All right, screw this," I said after a minute. "Who needs bananas anyway? We'll just get fish or something. I want to GET OUT OF HERE."

"Amen, sister," Spot murmured, and he climbed down from Braids' arms then. "I think I'm gonna hurl..."

Soaker reached into the pocket of her skirt. "Hey Spot—if you have to spew—" She pulled out a tiny paper bag and carefully unfolded it. "—spew into this." [1]

Spot looked at her, eyebrow raised. "I don't even WANT to know where you got that thing," he said slowly. He turned back to the rest of us. "All right, let's go back to the beach. ONWARD, I SAY!"

-----

**_Shoutouts!!_**

**__**

**tinydanceremily:** I meant to get in some action with Davey in this chapter, I really did! I guess I kind of lost track of things with the whole camera-squishing incident... :-) Anyway, thanks for reviewing, I love you!

**ershey:** ((looks back over chapter)) I really picked on you in this chapter, didn't I? Sorry about that, I couldn't resist. I only do it because I love you, lol. :-D Cameras in the school hallways?? That's sick and wrong, I'm glad they didn't do it! Thanks for reviewing!

**Dakki:** I love Coldplay. And I love you. I've been in a little euphoria (ooh, big word for Izzy!) for the past few days from reading "Chinese Lantern", that story just made me so goshdarn happy. :-D You really must contact me (wow, I sound so SOPHISTICATED) about our fic-to-be at some point or else this is never gonna happen ... 'cause I have issues E-mailing and IMing people first, lol. Anyway, thanks for reviewing, I love you! (And no, I have no idea what that song is about. I've given up trying to discern Coldplay lyrics loooooong ago...)

**uninvisible:** ((dies)) A newsies fanfiction writer sleepover. Would that not be the coolest thing IMAGINABLE?? ((gives you a cookie)) I hope your head feels better now, lol! ((gives you a hot water bottle)) Thanks for reviewing!! :-D

**nani at 12 o'clock:** "i couldent catch a ball if you put it in my hand" HAHAHA! Story of my life ... I'm kind of known with my friends for having NO hand-eye coordination whatsoever. It's really quite sad. Anyway, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**Written Sparks:** Saturapphyarks Island! Ohh I'm so clever!! Yeah, there's really nothing more heartbreaking than seeing your favorite newsie turning gay. No, scratch that, seeing him fall for a Mary Sue is the most heartbreaking thing of all. Which, I assure you, is never going to happen in THIS story. :-D Thanks for reviewing, I love you! See you on the Island! :-D

**Sapphy:** I actually just started reading "Lord of the Flies", and it's turning out to be INSANELY like my story. I swear I hadn't the vaguest idea what that book was about AT ALL, and then here I am reading it and it's following almost the exact same plotline as mine. Except not. In any case, nobody's turning cannibal on MY island and there should be a happy ending. :-D :-D Thanks for reviewing, I love you!

**SpotLover421:** Oh no! I just realized ... did you know any of the lyrics in this chapter?? Wait, you MUST have known "Wonderwall", right? I don't expect anyone to know "Pirates of Penzance", though, that's just me being a Gilbert and Sullivan freak. :-D Anyway, thanks for reviewing, I love you! (Oh and by the way, I'm not going for the Sprace. If you didn't already figure that out. So Spot's all yours, baby.)

**Hotshot:** HAHAHAHA! Omg you have no idea how freaked out I was when I read your review — yes, I live smack-dab in the middle of Massachusetts, and I use the word "wicked" far too much for my own good. :-D No, I haven't read "The Price of Friendship"...Is it any good? (I'd HOPE so, if my story reminds you of it, lol) :-) Thanks for the review!

**Soaker:** More lines, this chapter. That good? :-D

**Ccatt:** Libraries do NOT suck!

**ShortAtntionSpaz:** You're reading this story despite the slash?? ((tackles you)) I feel so loved! ...Now what's that you're quoting at me? It looks awfully familiar ... but at the same time, I don't think I've read it before. It just looks an awful lot like my six-year-old sister trying to spell stuff ... I guess I can't get a gold star. ((bursts into tears and runs away))

**Erin Go Bragh:** I'm really heartbroken over the disappearance of the asterisks. I mean, now I'm reduced to using PARENTHESIS to show actions!! Ohh the SHAME!! Ah well—thanks for reviewing!!

**KyrielF:** Well, ah ... you're not really bathing that much when you're stuck on a deserted island, are you? ... Whatever, it matters not. DOWN WITH THE CAMERAS, INDEED! ((takes out a mop)) Thanks for reviewing, I love you! (Nice eerie music, by the way. Very effective.)

**singin'-newsies-goil:** I love your little Dutchy fetish. :-D OMG!! My mom just told me to come downstairs—she's watching Empire of the Sun, and Christian Bale is SO CUTE! ((dies)) Thanks for reviewing, I love you!

**Coin:** OH. MY. GOD. ((dies laughing)) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No, Lex Luther isn't a pro-wrestler, he's Superman's archenemy. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be laughing at you, that was just really great. I'll still take the action figure! :-D Anyway, thanks for reviewing, I love you!

**Lady of Tir Na Nog:** Brave Sir Robin, WOO HOO! :-D

**Scout:** Yeah, I've got at least one person pissed at me over every newsie I've turned gay. Except Bumlets; I have to be pissed my MYSELF for turning _him_ gay, 'cause nobody else cares about the little sweetie-pie... ((tackles him in a hug)) Thanks for reviewing, I love you!

**Repeat:** "The Young and Trapped on An Island as Part of An Evil Experiment". ((dies laughing)) I love you, reps...

-----

[1] Tell me what movie that's from and Bumlets will give you a free make-out session! (Bumlets: WHAT??)

-----

**Author's Note:** PHEW! ((wipes sweat of forehead)) I think it took me longer to write the shoutouts than it did to write the entire chapter! Not to say that I don't love your wonderful reviews, lol. KEEP 'EM COMIN', BABY!

-Saturday


	7. Chapter Six: The Hound

**Author's Note: **...((smiles apologetically)) Hey, it's only been about a millennium since I last updated this thing. Please don't glare at me like that…

**Disclaimer: **The newsies belong to Disney, casting call OC's belong to their respective owners, and any song lyrics belong to their respective bands/artists. I do, however, own anyone who looks good in a lab coat.

* * *

**See the sky, the burning rain**

**She will die and live again**

**Tonight...**

**-A Sort of Homecoming, U2**

* * *

**Scout.**

****

There was something about the way the moonlight touched the Island that made everything seem almost surreal, the trunks of trees and the bodies sprawled across the damp sand bathed in a dim silvery light. It wasn't real moonlight, but it was the closest thing to real moonlight I was ever going to see, what with artificial sunlight shining 24 hours a day back in the real world.

The real world.

Something alarmingly close to nostalgia passed briefly through me, making me give an involuntary shudder. I hated it here. I hated what I was doing, and I hated the looks of trust and admiration on everyone's faces when they looked at me. I had to find Jack.

I pulled myself to my feet and pushed back my untidy hair, once so dark but now bleached oddly from the sun. There was a strange sensation in my throat not unlike the feeling that comes after swallowing a pill without water, and I seriously doubted that it was going to go away any time soon. Great. The last thing I needed was to break down and cry in front of _Jack_, of all people.

I found him walking along the beach with his hands in his pockets, staring down at the sand. He looked up when he saw me coming towards him, and his face took on an oddly blank expression. "I dunno if I can do this anymore," he said hollowly.

I smiled and looked out over the water. "Do you think it's possible to drown yourself in this ocean?" I asked, not really wanting an answer.

"You know it's just an illusion. It only goes out fifty feet or so, and the rest is pure computer animation."

"But it looks so goddamn real."

Jack sat down on the sand. "Do you think Stewart's watchin' us now? He said he'd personally make sure we did our jobs, but since we got the cameras outta the trees..." He shrugged. "How's he supposed to know?"

"There's gotta be more cameras out there," I said, looking over my shoulder into the woods. "We couldn't've gotten 'em all. He can still find us and make sure we're turnin' everyone against each other."

"Why the hell does he want everyone split up like this, anyway?"

I shrugged. "I didn't bother to ask when I took the job. I needed the money, and he said he had a job requiring special talent. I didn't really think about it, and I know you didn't, either..."

"What I hate most is the Hound," said Jack softly.

The Hound.

I found myself looking back at the woods again, my jaw set. I could just see the gleaming eyes, the powerful jaws, the glossy fur that looked as though it had been cut out of the night sky, covering a smooth, perfect mechanical framework. It could crush my skull in an instant if it wanted to. For the first time in my life, I'd been living in a state of constant terror.

"It won't hurt us," I said, more for my benefit than for Jacks. "Stewart promised. So long as we do our jobs, the Hound won't come near us."

"But what about Blink? Nani? Bel? Christ, Scout, Boots is barely five feet tall — imagine what the Hound could do to him." Jack ran his fingers through the sand. "Stewart never guaranteed the safety of everyone else."

"The Hound's only there to add a fear factor," I said. "It won't actually hurt anyone; it's only there to act as a predator and help to undo the evolutionary process... It's perfectly safe, all right?"

Jack looked up at me. "Do you actually believe all that, Scout?" he asked.

I bit my lip. Everything was getting so fucked up... When I accepted the job from Dr Stewart, I never realized that I'd be dealing with real people, real emotions, real relationships, and now it struck me just how far he was willing to go to make sure his experiment was a success. Would he really kill someone? I wouldn't be surprised. I suddenly felt incredibly sickened by myself, by the fact that I was helping him go through with this.

"Scout?"

I blinked and looked down at Jack. "I should probably go back to bed," I said. "Someone might notice we're gone, and I don't know what the hell's gonna happen if we're found out. Stewart might seriously kill us."

"He's probably gonna kill us anyway," said Jack grimly, but he stood up and brushed his hands off on his pants. "Meet you here tomorrow, same time?"

"There is no time on the Island, Jack."

He exhaled heavily. "Night, Scout."

* * *

**Bel.**

****

All things considered, life on the Island was treating us pretty well. None of us missed having to wear the standard uncomfortable, stiff, black boots we were required to wear in the real world. Nobody was yearning for the chores expected of us in our orphanage homes, which often included cleaning out the elaborate and pretty disgusting oral hygiene devices stored in the cupboard above the sink. And absolutely no one was upset that we were no longer being segregated by gender at all times.

However, I'm sure that every one of the teenagers being held captive on the Island were desperately missing one thing — real food.

"You know, as much as I love fresh fish," said Coin as she stabbed fruitlessly at the water, "it's a bit of a turn-off when you think about the fact that they've been swimming in the same water that Blink peed in not much earlier."

"The world is my urinal!" Blink announced happily, diving forward with his spear.

"It's really astounding how little time you spend with Spot," I remarked. "You two have quite a lot in common."

Blink shrugged and pulled his spear out of the water, a fairly large fish wriggling at the end. "Spot's a little too hyperactive for me," he said as he carefully removed it and tossed it onto the sand. "And I've got to pee."

"Blink, I'm beginning to suspect that your bladder is the size of a walnut," said Coin seriously.

"Shut up, Coin."

The three of us were soon joined by Bandit and King, who were talking as though they had been friends for years. "Morning," said Bandit amiably, spotting us. "Nothing like wading through icy water to really wake a person up, eh?"

I grinned. "Amen to that."

"How goes the fishing so far?" King asked.

"I've caught three!" Blink declared.

"And he's peed twice," added Coin.

"Shut _up_, Coin!"

King sighed and adjusted her grip on her makeshift spear, her eyes on the water. "It looks as though we're going to be having fish for breakfast again," she said, darting forward. "Man, I'm getting sick of this. Where the hell have all the bananas gone?"

Blink opened his mouth to answer, but I cut him off. "Rhetorical question, Blink."

"Oh." He grinned at me, shading his eyes with his hand to block out the early morning sun, and I felt a slight tingle on the back of my neck. I quickly turned back to the water.

Coin was getting rather frustrated. "I am so — goddamn — _sick_ — of — fish!" she said irritably, stabbing jerkily at the water. "If I don't catch this next one, I'm going to hurt someone, and I'm serious about that threat."

She caught it, luckily, and returned back to her usual, cheerful self. Bandit smiled nervously and quickly looked away.

"HURRY UP WITH THOSE FISH, 'CAUSE I AIN'T WAITIN' FOREVER TO START COOKIN'!" Nani yelled from the shore where she was kneeling by the fire.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on," Blink muttered.

"I AIN'T TAKIN' MY PANTS OFF, EITHER!"

"It really makes a person wonder how Bumlets can sleep through all this," said King thoughtfully, looking back at the sleeping form of the Hispanic boy. "Everyone else woke up hours ago... Do you think he, like, died or somethin'?"

"He's been sleeping later and later ever since the other guys went to the other side of the Island," said Coin grimly. "I think he and Swifty were really close."

I looked over at him. "He shouldn't do that. It's not healthy," I said.

"Nothing Bumlets does is healthy," said Bandit. "He's almost as screwed up as I am, and that's sayin' somethin'."

I glanced at the image imprinted his arm but didn't say anything. King suddenly found the palm of her hand extremely interesting and avoided everyone's gaze, her hair falling in front of her eyes. There was a brief, awkward silence.

"HEY KYRIEL, YOU WANNA WAKE BUMLETS UP?" I called, cupping my hands around my mouth.

Kyriel looked up from the fire. "WHY? HAVE MERCY, BEL, HE SEEMS HAPPIER WHEN HE'S ASLEEP!"

"YEAH, BUT I'M GROWING CONCERNED THAT HE'LL GO INTO A COMA IF HE SLEEPS FOR MUCH LONGER!"

"All right, I'm getting out," said Blink as Chris hurried to wake Bumlets up.

"Why?" I asked.

"'Cause I'm sick of being wet," he replied, and he made his way out of the water and proceeded to shake himself out like a dog next to the small pile of fish we had caught.

"An odd one, that Blink Parker," said Coin thoughtfully.

"Indeed," I agreed, and stabbed viciously at the water. I paused. "I'm getting out, too," I said after a moment.

"Conformist."

"Shut up, Coin." I grinned at her and made my way out of the water, spear swung over my shoulder. "Considah yerself well in! Considah yerself paht o' the fuhnichah! Theah isn't a lot to shaih! Who cares? Wha'evah we got, we shaih!"

"That is quite possibly the worst cockney accent I have ever had the pleasure of hearing," Blink commented from the ground where he was cleaning out one of the fish. "You've just raped one of the greatest show tunes of all time, Bel. Congratulations."

"Aw shut up, as if you could do better," I said pleasantly, plopping down beside him and sticking my spear into the sand.

"I can," he said calmly without looking up from his fish.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yep."

"Fine, then. Do it."

And he did. And it was beautiful.

And that was the day that I, Christabel Forrester, fell hopelessly, desperately, and completely in love with Kid Blink Parker. It was absolutely pathetic, and I was deliriously happy.

Blink didn't seem to notice. He was going pee.

* * *

**Bandit.**

****

Somehow, looking at King was like being home again.

"Ooh, there it goes!" Coin yelped, diving forward. "C'mere, little fishy — DAMMIT!"

She made me think of when Marie and I used to sit on out parents' bed and play some stupid, old-fashioned game — "Go Fish" or something. And how I would always lose on purpose so as not to hurt her feelings. I could never handle a crying kid.

"Aha, I've got you now! THERE IS NO ESCAPE! SURRENDER!"

She wasn't particularly pretty or anything, I thought idly, running my fingers along the edge of my spear. I mean, there was nothing _wrong_ with her face — she was just fairly average looking. Nothing special.

"Ohh, and now you're darting between my legs? As if _that_ would ever work, you conniving little—"

No, it wasn't her appearance; it was something else. Something about her personality that made her so easy to talk to, something about the way she was able to listen to me and not freeze up every time she saw my tattoo, something about her smile that made me feel—

"You shall be breakfast, whether you like it or not!"

So—

"Give up! You lose!"

Incredibly—

"She dives forward, she shoots, she sc—"

There was a tremendous splash, and Coin flung herself into the water, letting out a wild war cry and thrusting her spear forward. King leapt backwards out of shock and knocked into me, causing the pair of us to fall back into the water, one on top of the other. "Holy—"

"AHAHA! I GOT 'IM!" Coin yelled, and she lifted her spear, victorious, for the entire world to see. "This just goes to prove that talking to your food does indeed make a difference. I, ladies and gentlemen, am a genius."

King and I gave her blank looks. "Have you lost your mind?" asked King.

"You ever read Lord of the Flies?" said Coin.

"Yeah, once."

"Y'know how the island started to drive 'em all crazy after a while?"

"Yeah...?"

Coin smiled. "That book is much more realistic than it seems," she said sagely. "Once your creature comforts are gone, your sanity follows soon after. I speak from experience."

"Right." King glanced at me, one eyebrow raised but a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

I shrugged. "Don't ask me, I just live here," I said.

"ARE YOU QUITE DONE FISHING YET?" Nani called impatiently from the shore. "THIS FIRE AIN'T LASTIN' FOREVER!"

"WE'LL BE OUT IN A SEC, ALL RIGHT?" King yelled. She turned back to me, dark eyes slightly wider than usual. "Bandit, I need to talk to you," she said.

I tilted my head to the side and looked out over the water, avoiding her gaze. "About what?" I asked in a would-be-casual manner.

"I dunno." She bit her lip and looked down at her hands. "I guess—"

"Just outta curiosity, are you two planning on sitting on each other for the rest of the morning?" asked Coin seriously. "Because if you are, I'm getting out now."

King grinned at her, stood up, and offered me a hand, which I accepted. "The thing is," she continued quietly as if there had been no exception, "I feel kinda funny."

Under any other circumstances, I would have laughed. Classic King, to take something as delicate as how she was feeling right now and turn it into something rough and easy to deal with. A stomachache. "Yeah." I cleared my throat awkwardly and looked down at our hands, which were, oddly enough, still laced together. "Yeah, me too."

Coin stabbed at the water. "I feel like such a third wheel," she muttered.

"I mean, I'm not about to say that you don't have issues." King reached up and touched the tattoo on my arm, then pulled back and looked at me. "'Cause you do. But, Bandit, man..." She stopped suddenly.

"Yeah?" I said after a moment.

"I dunno, I just think that maybe you could, like..." King licked her lips, searching for the words. "...try to get over it, y'know? Not completely, of course, but enough to..."

I finally met her gaze, frowning out of confusion. "To what, King? What the hell are you tryin' to say?"

And that was when she leaned forward and kissed me full on the lips.

"I knew it!" Coin laughed, sitting down in the water and dropping her spear. "I knew they liked each other, I knew it! HAHA, THIS IS GREAT! Ohh, where's Dutchy, he owes me a dollar! DUTCHY!"

"HE'S HIDING BEHIND BUMLETS!" Skittery yelled from where he was burying Kyriel in the sand. "Holy crap — BANDIT, WOO HOO! YOU GO, MAN!"

I wasn't listening. I guess you could say I was a little distracted.

* * *

**Chris.**

****

The word "loud" was beginning to take on a completely new meaning for me.

Not that I myself was not generally loud. In fact, back at the orphanage I had been unofficially dubbed "Mouth" because of how much I liked to talk, so it wasn't as if I was unused to the idea of loudness.

The thing is, girl loud is as entirely different as it is possibly to be from guy loud. And I can tell you, guy loud is much scarier.

"I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me!" sang Dutchy.

"He's just a poor boy from a poor family! Spare him his life from this monstrosity!" sang Specs, Crutchy, Pie Eater, and Boots.

"Easy come easy go, will you not let me go?"

"Bismillah! No, we will not let you go!"

"LET HIM GOOO!"

"Bismillah! We will not let you go!"

"LET HIM GOOO!"

"Bismillah! We will not let you go!"

"LET ME GOOO!"

"ALL RIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY' FOR TODAY!" yelled Spitfire, clapping a hand over Dutchy's mouth before he could continue. "As much as I love Freddie Mercury, you guys are positively butchering this song and I think Nova is on the verge of tears."

"I am not!" Nova lied.

"Do bananas have an off-season?" I wondered aloud. "This is ridiculous; I haven't seen one banana tree since, like, the day before the day before the day before yesterday. It's like they all just got up and left one day."

"I'm sure that's _exactly_ what happened," said Specs, rolling his eyes.

"Well where else could they be?"

The eight of us had been sent against our will to go and fetch some bananas for breakfast, probably because Bel, Blink, and Coin were going on a sort of hunger strike because they were so sick of fish. I found it rather interesting that the three of them hadn't been sent to gather bananas, but in the end it didn't matter. We had developed a sort of reciprocal economy here on the Island, and they'd end up going for bananas later on. It all evened out eventually.

Nova chewed on her thumbnail thoughtfully. "What month was it when we were last in the real world?" she asked.

"August," said Boots.

"So now it should be, like, late September, right?"

"I guess so..."

She looked up. "Do you think the bananas are gonna be here all year round?" she said suddenly.

"Are _we_ gonna be here all year round?" Pie Eater demanded.

"I hope so."

"Not if there aren't any bananas!"

"I SPY SOMETHING YELLOW!" Spitfire yelled, and she went sprinting off into the trees. "AHA!" we heard her exclaim. "This has gotta be the last banana tree on the whole goddamn Island, don't you think? C'mere, guys, help me get 'em down."

We made our way over to her and examined the tall banana tree she had found. "They look kinda overripe," Crutchy remarked.

"Beggars can't be choosers," said Boots. "They'll be fine. Now who's gonna let me get onto their shoulders so we can reach?"

"Specs will," said Dutchy.

"I will?" said Specs.

"Yes, you will."

"Oh. Okay."

"We certainly got landed with an eccentric group of people," I commented to Nova.

She grinned. "Yeah. I mean, what were the odds that half the kids on the Island would be almost completely outta their minds?"

"Well, most people are outta their minds, these days."

"Point taken."

We had gathered a pretty decent amount of bananas and were just designating banana-carriers when we heard it. Quiet at first, but growing steadily louder — a gentle rustling in the woods not far to the left, as though a fairly large animal was trying to keep us from hearing it coming. I looked up from the cluster of bananas I was holding, but there was nothing there.

Pie Eater glanced at me, eyes wide. "Did you hear that?" he asked softly.

I nodded, and the pair of us stared unseeingly into the woods. It suddenly struck me how dark they were, even this far into the day — the canopy of leaves and branches above made an endlessly moving network of green shadows across the ground, and the trees were huge and close together. I had never before felt so claustrophobic.

The sound came again to our right, and this time everyone looked up. "What the hell was that?" Spitfire murmured.

"It sounded..."

"Big?"

"I think I'm gonna hurl."

"Don't hurl on the bananas, Crutchy, that's all we have right now. Unless you want fish again."

"Good idea, Chris. I'll hurl on you, instead."

"Guys!_ Shhhhhh!_"

Everyone froze and looked back into the woods, and I could almost feel the tension radiating from everyone. It had just occurred to me that it if _was _something to be worried about — a saber tooth tiger or something — it wouldn't think twice about killing us now. There was no one to protect us.

Holy sh—

"Okay, I vote we get the hell outta here," said Nova quietly, hugging her bananas to her chest.

"I second that," Boots agreed. "Let's go."

We hurried back in the direction we came in, looking determinedly ahead and willing ourselves not to see or hear anything we didn't want to. I was scared. I was so goddamn scared that I was practically clinging to Dutchy's arm, ignoring his occasional yelps of pain. When we reached camp, there would be bright fingerprints all along his forearm. A souvenir.

After a few minutes, I couldn't help myself. I looked back over my shoulder.

At first I didn't see anything except moving shadows and swaying leaves — and then I looked further back into the shadows, and a surge of adrenaline rushed through my chest.

Eyes.

As cliché as it sounds, there were two sharp, gleaming eyes looking back at me from the shadows. For a second the world stopped as I stared into those eyes, dull and bright, alive and dead at the same time. They were fixed on me. They knew I saw them. And they were drawing closer.

But we had reached the beach, the closest thing to safety we were going to be able to find. "Could you let go now?" Dutchy asked softly, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he looked down at his arm.

"I don't think I'm ever gonna be able to let go, Dutch," I said, swallowing hard.

He sighed. "Great."

* * *

**Shoutouts.**

****

**Ccatt: **Yeah, I haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite yet. Super, you say? Well then, I'll take your word for it! ;-)

**tinydanceremily: **Of course "squishagge" is a word! ...Even though my computer tried to spell-check it. Ah well. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

**Scout73:** My sister was trying to get me to put in some Scout/Jack action. I was like "Ahh, no no no! She likes SNITCH!" And my sister's like, "...why?" It was great. (Don't worry, I won't put in any unnecessary romance. I've got enough love triangles to deal with as it is, lol.) Thanks for reviewing!

**singin'-newsies-goil:** Omg, you must read "Send in the Clowns" by signpost. I'm not kidding, it's like the most brilliant piece of Dutchy/Bumlets I have ever read in my life (well... the only piece of Dutchy/Bumlets I have ever read in my life...) and it's like a combination of both our fetishes into one masterpiece! HAHA! Anyway, thanks for reviewing! ;-)

**Dakki:** Dude. When you sent me your last review, it was before we had even begun E-mailing about our masterpiece. ((counts on fingers)) And that was a long time ago. It's really pathetic how long I took updating this thing. ((grins)) Anyway, thanks SO MUCH for your review because it was bloody BRILLIANT!! I love you! (Oh and by the way, I hope you don't mind that I gave you Blink. You guys just seemed meant for each other, lol.)

**uninvisible:** ((gasp)) I quote Racetrack Higgins: You outta your MIND?? Who on earth wouldn't want a make-out session with Bumlets?! (Spot: ((tentatively raises hand)) ) Well yes, Spot, but he's very straight in this story. Ah well, you may have a make-out session with whomever you please. (I highly suggest Crutchy. He's better than he looks.) JUST KIDDING!! Thanks for reviewing, I love ya! ((pauses)) Oh, and I don't have a Livejournal but I do have a xanga, which is virtually the same thing. It's my homepage on my profile. It plays "Walk On" when you open it. ;-)

**Erin Go Bragh:** All right, you get the best review award. Dude. That was just awesome. Thank you so much, I love you!! ((tackles you))

**Written Sparks:** Of course there will be boys on our Island! We shall invite Skittery, Bumlets, Racetrack, Jack, David, and Mush (but only if he promises to remain shirtless forever), and Blink, of course. And that dude I saw at the ice cream place last night, 'cause he was quite possibly the sexiest damn thing I've ever seen. ((smiles dreamily))

**Repeat:** Hmm, big Indian dance, you say? I shall most definitely consider it. ;-) Thanks for reviewing!

**Coin:** Hooray for Coin! I almost did a point of view for you today, but then I decided I should probably make Bandit and King kiss instead or else several of my reviewers would be very upset with me. I will get you in, though, never fear! Lol, thanks for reviewing!

**Sapphy:** ((hands you Bumlets, who has been doing lip exercises all morning to prepare for his make-out session)) Knock yourself out, babe. ;-) And happy day-after-birthday.

**Soaker:** Honestly, I have no idea what the hell a wonderwall is. I was hoping one of my reviewers could supply me with that answer, but apparently it's one of the great mysteries of the universe. ((sits and thinks))

**Ershey:** "Anything Goes" is from the play "Anything Goes". ;-) Actually, you and Dave are on the same side of the Island, so you guys can have a huge camera-squishing extravaganza. WONDERFUL! Anyway, thanks for reviewing, I love ya!

**XthespianWizardX:** I love your new penname, dahling! It took me a minute to figure out who the hell you were, but it's very nice. ;-) That's odd, because I have a very very tall friend named Jamie and a very very small friend named Tiffany. We're, like, clones or something. But not. :-D Anyway, thanks for reviewing!!

**Braids21:** Hey, I love your babble. Don't ever stop, because it's awesome. :-D Yeah, you get Spot — but you have to deal with the jealous fangirls, lol. Thanks for reviewing, I love ya! (And update TJORH, dammit!! ...Yeah, I'm a hypocrite...)

**Lady of Tir Na Nog:** ((claps for Oasis)) Dear _God_ I love those men... Thanks for reviewing!

**ShortAtntionSpaz:** "If you want breakfast in bed, sleep in the kitchen." ((dies)) I love you SO MUCH... Anyway, thank you for the review and the gold star. ((hangs it on bedroom wall)) I shall cherish it forever.

**

* * *

**

**Author's Note: **So there you go. I'm sorry I've been sort of ignoring some characters and really elaborating on others — the thing is, I've been focusing on the characters on the east side of the island right now. I think they're on the east side, anyway. What I mean is, these guys are the ones who want to stay. Last time, it was the ones who wanted to leave. Et cetera. Anyway, please leave a review!

-Saturday


	8. Chapter Seven: The Department of Human R...

**

* * *

Author's Note: **Happy Halloween!!

Disclaimer: The newsies belong to Disney, any song lyrics belong to their respective bands/artists, and the casting call characters belong to their respective owners. I own Stewart and Keenan, and there's a quote in there from Calvin and Hobbes. See if you can find it.

* * *

All of this, all of this can be yours...

-U2, Vertigo

* * *

****

Snitch.

* * *

I was having an epiphany.

It was a bit of an inopportune moment to have said epiphany, to be perfectly honest—it seemed that every single person on the east side of The Island was sitting there on the sand with me, watching the sun set and talking nonstop. Ershey and Sapphy were trying to teach Flare, Spot, and Braids how to tap dance barefoot (without much success), Soaker and Granny were conversing wildly, and David and Emily seemed to be sharing some sort of little moment by the trees. And there I was, sitting in the middle of it all and finally figuring everything out.

"Carpe diem," I said to myself suddenly.

Scout looked up from the fire where she and Alaska were cooking dinner. "What?"

I grinned at her. She was really very pretty, I realized. She had this sort of rough, artistic beauty about her that you didn't notice until you really got to know her—and I had just noticed it. "Carpe diem," I repeated.

"What the hell is carpy deem?" Irish asked, laughing.

"Seize the day."

"Oh."

They seemed to think about this for a moment, obviously wondering why I was speaking in Latin under my breath. I wasn't going to wait for them to ask. "I have to go," I said, and I pulled myself to my feet and began sprinting off across the beach.

"Snitch, wha—" someone yelled behind me, but I didn't answer them. I wasn'tabout to stop now.

"SNITCH! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME, NOW SLOW DOWN FOR A SECOND! AAAUGH!"

The smirk on my face broadened slightly and I ran faster than ever, flying across the sand at breakneck speed. A flock of seagulls rose into the air as I ran through them, letting out a loud whoop and flinging my arms into the air. And then my foot hit a rock and I suddenly found myself in the air with the birds, and then back down again with a loud thud. "Ow."

"SNITCH!" Scout yelled, skidding to a stop next to me and spraying me with sand. "Holy crap, holy crap, goddammit, are you all right? Answer me, Snitch, are you—"

I rolled over and looked at her. "Something has changed within me; something is not the same. I'm sick of playing by the rules of someone else's game."

She stared at me, mouth slightly open and her hair shifting in the light breeze. "What. Is. _Wrong. _With. You," she said. She seemed to be trying not to be amused. "You go running off for no apparent reason, and now you're _singing_ to me. You're out of your MIND."

"Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep," I continued, grinning at her as I got to my feet. "It's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes, and leap..."

"What are y—"

"It's time to try defying gravity; I think I'll try defying gravity, and you can't pull me down!" I sang happily, grabbing her in a hug and kissing her hair. "I have to go, Scout. I can't explain now, I just—I have to go." I started to run down the beach again.

"Um... Bye!" Scout called after me.

"SEE YA, SCOUT!" I yelled.

After that, my entire sense of reality kind of morphed. I could feel the sand under my feet, the wind stinging my face and chest, but the whole world seemed almost dreamlike. _Jesus Christ, I hope I'm not dreaming, _I thought suddenly.

I reached the other camp, and everyone looked up with slightly shocked expressions on their faces (except Bel, who smiled warmly and saluted me). "Um... Hi guys," I said awkwardly, trying to catch my breath. I scanned the crowd, looking for that one familiar face. I didn't see it.

"...Yes?" Jack prompted irritably.

I coughed. "Where's Skittery?"

"Why do you want to talk to Skittery?"

"I just..." I exhaled loudly. "Could you just tell me where he is?"

Jack continued to look me over morosely, so Kyriel answered for him. "He usually goes off down the beach around now," she said, glancing back behind her. "To think, y'know?"

"That dude thinks too much," Spitfire muttered.

I grinned at her. He does.

"He just left a couple minutes ago; if you run, you might be able to catch up with 'im," said Kyriel, pointing down the beach.

"More running for Snitch—oh joy," said Coin dryly, grinning at me.

"I don't mind." I made my way through them, carefully avoiding eye-contact with Jack, who was obviously trying to intimidate me with his glares. Bumlets was sitting on the very outside of the circle of people, and he looked up at me with an expression on his face that I couldn't read. Envy? Did he know what I was about to do?

And then I was running again, a sharp pain in my side and adrenaline pumping through my chest. The sun was almost completely below the horizon now and it was quickly growing dark, but I recognized the slender figure up ahead immediately. "SKITTERY!" I yelled, and the figure stopped and turned around. "WAIT UP!"

He waited.

I reached him, and he looked at me with those dark, nervous eyes. "Hey, Snitch," he said quietly. He was even more beautiful than I remembered him, his dark hair long and shaggy and his figure outlined in the dying light. He looked away from me, out across the ocean.

"Whacha doin' all by yourself out here?" I asked, putting my hands in my pockets. The pair of us began to walk down the beach again.

He shrugged. "Thinkin'."

"You think too much," I told him, echoing what Spitfire had said.

"I know."

We walked in silence for a little while, and in doing so I noticed that my blue jeans were completely torn at the knees. Maybe I could just cut the lower part off and make them into shorts. It got pretty fucking hot out during the day.

The silence was getting really awkward.

"You love me, don't you, Skitts?" I said finally.

Skittery glanced at me and then looked quickly back down at the sand. "No," he said quietly, and he coughed awkwardly.

I smiled slightly, hoping he wouldn't see. "'Cause you sure act like you love me."

"Well I don't, okay?" he snapped.

I stopped walking and turned to face him. He wouldn't look me in the eye. "Would it change anything if I told you I loved you back?" I said softly, trying to make him look at me.

He licked his lips, still looking down at the sand. His eyes were oddly bright. "No," he answered, his voice barely above a whisper.

I sighed loudly and put my hands firmly on his shoulders. "Are you scared of _everything?" _I asked.

He swallowed. "Yes," he said, and I noticed that his voice was shaking slightly. "I'm scared of the asylums, and I'm scared of what everyone else will say, and I'm—I'm scared of you."

Neither of us said anything for a long time.

"Aha." I started to walk again, and after some hesitation he followed me. "Well. I can deal with that," I said.

Skittery, who was looking down at the sand again, didn't answer.

So I didn't say anything more. We walked along the beach for a long time without speaking, our shoulders brushing every now and then. I didn't push the topic, and he seemed thankful in his quiet, dark, Skittery way.

But after a few minutes, I took his hand.

And that didn't seem to scare him at all.

* * *

****

David.

* * *

"So. What are you two lovebirds up to?" Sapphy asked cheerfully, coming to sit next to me and pulling her knees up to her chest.

I raised an eyebrow. "Lovebirds?" I repeated.

"Well you _do_ seem a little—"

Race tried to discreetly elbow her ribs, but her loud "OW! RACE, WHAT THE HELL!" kind of ruined any chances of discreetness. He sighed and leaned back against the tree, and I glanced back at Emily, who shrugged.

"Um, we're trying to figure out what to do to get off The Island," I said after a minute.

"Ah. Good."

"Yes."

I looked at Emily again despite myself. _Lovebirds?_ Did they really think I was attracted to her? That was absolutely ridiculous! I was not in any way, shape, or form attracted to Emily; she knew it, I knew it, everyone else knew it, so what was the trouble? People could be so empty-headed sometimes!

She smiled at me, and I blushed and looked away. Sapphy sniggered. Race elbowed her again.

After a few minutes, Spot and Braids joined us and lay down on their backs on the sand. "What's da 411, brothah?" Spot sang.

We all stared at him. "Don't ask," Braids sighed, closing her eyes.

Emily cleared her throat. "Well, uh, we still have the one camera. I was thinking we could put together some sort of..."

"Speech," I supplied.

"Right, a speech."

"Ohh, this is so cuuuuuute, they're finishing each other's sent—RACE, QUIT ELBOWING ME—"

"I'm almost positive that The Island is an artificial creation made by the Department of Human Research, and that means that there's definitely someone on the other end of this camera," said Emily. "So we should get one of us to represent the entire group, and they can give the speech to the... well, to the camera, I guess. To express our rights."

We all thought this over for a minute.

"Dat's cool wit me, sistah," said Spot, raising his fist to Emily.

Braids looked at him. "You, my dear, are most definitely _not _representing us as a group."

"The Department of Human Research?" Sapphy repeated, frowning. "Aren't they the guys who conduct inhumane but technically legal experiments on human beings?"

Emily smiled grimly. "Yes."

"Shit," said Race.

Another thoughtful pause.

"So I guess we should figure out who's going to represent us, then?" said Braids, rolling onto her stomach and resting her chin on her hands. "Or maybe we should go talk to the west side guys first."

"Diplomacy, sistah!" Spot yelled.

"STOP IT! YOU ARE NOT FROM JAMAICA!"

"You know whats? We is t'roo, Braids."

"...What?"

"Ya heard me. We is t'roo!"

Sapphy laughed, leaning her head back against a tree trunk. "He's telling you that you two are through, Braids," she said.

"OH!"

"Were you ever together?" I asked.

"No, not really."

"Aha."

Emily and I would be good together. Not that I was attracted to her or anything. We would just be good together.

"I agree with Spot," said Race. "I think we should go and talk to the guys on the other side of The Island, see what they have to say. Who's with me?"

"AYE!" yelled Alaska from the fire. "But dinner's ready, so come and eat it first, all right?"

"Sure thing, ma," said Sapphy with a grin.

"Aw shut up, Sapphy."

They all got up to gather around the little bonfire and eat the freshly cooked fish ("Ack, I _hate _fish!" "Sapphy, if you keep doing that with your face, it's gonna freeze that way." "Really? Sweet!"), leaving Emily and me alone again. "Alaska seems exactly like Wendy from Peter Pan sometimes," she said with a grin. "Looking after the lost boys."

Heh. I never thought of it that way.

"I'm not really hungry," I said after a moment.

Emily smiled. "Yeah, neither am I."

"Do you really think it's the Department of Human Research?" I asked suddenly.

She sighed slightly. "Yeah. I do," she said. "I mean, there's no other explanation for any of this. Thirty-six orphaned teenagers stuck inexplicably on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere with cameras in the trees and some sort of... _thing _trying to hunt us down? How could it _not _be an experiment?"

"...You've got a point."

Her smile broadened. A nice smile, I decided. Not that I was attracted to her, of course—she just had a nice smile.

Oh god, please help me.

* * *

****

Flare.

* * *

"This is ridiculous," Soaker muttered, running both hands through her hair. "They're not gonna listen. Why the hell would their opinions have changed completely over the course of, like, three days?"

"Well it's not right to just make a decision like this without telling them about it first," I answered.

"I guess."

It was truly dark out now, and we were all walking along the shoreline to the other side of the Island. Emily seemed to think it would be a good idea to get our ideas across tonight and then execute the plan tomorrow morning. "Besides," Race had said with a grin, "they're probably all too tired to argue now, and tomorrow morning, it'll be too late."

At which point Spot had said, "I like ya style, brothah", and Braids had tackled him.

I hadn't been nervous at all on the way down the beach, but the moment we reached their campfire, I suddenly found myself enigmatically anxious. I swallowed and looked over at Emily, who had become our new unofficial leader. Where had Scout gone?

"Why the _hell_ do you lot keep invading our area?" Jack demanded, standing up and marching toward us.

"Hey—peace, brothah. No war. We mean good."

"Shut up, Spot."

Emily looked up at Jack, ignoring the fact that he was a good foot taller than she was. "We'd like to talk to you guys," she said calmly. "Do you mind? It'll only take a few minutes."

Jack licked his lips, obviously thinking hard. He glanced back at his friends.

"Aw, don't be such an ass, Jack," Nani laughed, dragging him out of the way. "Don't worry about bothering us; we're bored out of our minds anyway," she whispered to Emily, who grinned.

It was in this way that all 36 of us found ourselves sitting together in a huge mass of sand and bodies again, just the way it had been before. "THE FELLOWSHIP HAS BEEN REUNITED!" Cat announced, grinning, and soon found herself being bombarded with banana peels. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed being all together like this.

Emily turned to David, looking suddenly slightly nervous. "Do you want to do the talking?" she asked him. "You're better at talking in front of crowds than I am."

"I am not!" he laughed, but he agreed to talk for her anyway.

Ohh, they were crushing. They were crushing so bad it was almost _painful _to watch.

David explained about Emily's theory on the Department of Human Research, and her suggestion about the representative with the camera. The rest of them listened quietly enough (disregarding Spot's quiet humming of "No Woman No Cry" under his breath), and they actually seemed to be considering our ideas when David was done.

"The Department of Human Research," said Bel thoughtfully. "Now that's pretty darn screwy, man."

"Amen, sistah," said Spot solemnly.

"Do you guys really want to be subjects of an experiment?" Emily asked them. She didn't sound accusatory or anything—just curious. "Do you really think this is going to end happily?"

"This has been better than anything I've ever gone through in the real world," said Bandit quietly.

"It's not _real_, dude," said Granny. "It's all artificial! This entire scenario was created for an experiment—"

"Whoa, wait, we never actually established that this is an experiment," said Nova.

"What else could it be?"

"I don't know, it just seems a bit..."

"Presumptuous, I know." Sapphy ran her fingers through the sand, head tilted to one side. "We could be wrong, but it's a risk we have to take, right? If we want to get out of this thing alive, we're gonna have to be prepared for anything."

"_Do_ we want to get out of this thing alive?"

All heads turned to look at Jack, who was standing at the edge of the firelight with his hands in his pockets. Augh, he was always so melodramatic...

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, Jacky-boy?" Spot demanded, forgetting his reggae act for the moment.

"It means that the United States of America in the year 2130 sucks beyond comprehension," said Jack slowly. "I go to the R. J. Grey Orphanage of Connecticut, and I'm absolutely miserable. Do you know what it's _like _there?"

Silence.

"I'd pretend I was happy. I'd pretend that I didn't mind the conformity, the matching black boots and black baggy jeans and black shirts, the segregation of genders, the book-burning—but it's all crap in the end." He kicked the sand jerkily. "The Island's like a relief from all that. I don't care if it's real or not, because it's better than what I had. Do you really want to go back to that hell you were living in before The Island?"

"Jack, for the first time in our lives, we have a chance to fucking _change _that hell, all right?" Bumlets snapped.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

Bumlets?

The Hispanic boys' eyes widened, and he glanced over at Swifty, who was sitting next to him on the sand. "Keep goin'," Swifty laughed, nudging him.

Bumlets looked positively terrified. So did Jack, to be honest. "Um, well..." He stared down at his hands, which were resting uselessly on his lap. "If this really is an experiment from the Department of Human Research, then we can't let it continue... because that's like saying that we're all right with the way the world is right now."

"If we don't take action now, we'll settle for nothing later," said Racetrack softly. "Settle for nothing now, we'll settle for nothing later."

Bumlets looked at him. "Rage Against The Machine."

"Dude. Meaning of life."

Bumlets smiled slightly. "Right," he said, and then a little louder. "Right! I mean I totally agree with you, Jack; I hate my orphanage like hell. But we can't hide from reality on this artificial Island. If you want to be treated like a human being, you have to fight like a human being—you have to let them know that you're not going to be tested on like animals. If you want freedom, you need to take it yourself, because they're not going to give it to you. The world as we know it today is complete and total rape, and now we can finally change that. _WE CAN FINALLY FUCKING CHANGE THE WORLD AND MAKE IT RIGHT AGAIN."_

And at that moment, the entire Island went dead silent. The wind stopped blowing, the seagulls stopped cawing, the people stopped breathing, and everything went absolutely, positively silent.

Finally, Sapphy spoke.

"Well," she said softly. "I think we've found our representative."

* * *

****

Shoutouts.

* * *

tinydanceremily: To be honest, there is no one I love more than I person who is easily amused. Congratulations. ((cheers)) Thanks for reviewing!

Glitz Kelly: Hahaha! Yes, soap is most definitely needed. If you could bring that, your ticked to the Island would be free. ;-)

TechniColor DreamGirl: Hooray! I love your characters so much—I'm really sorry I couldn't go into more development of their relationship and stuff. It's just that there are so many characters to deal with! Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

Erin Go Bragh: Actually, I got the idea for The Hound from Fahrenheit 451. Best book in the universe, dude. Ray Bradbury is. My. Idol. ((sighs)) Thanks for reviewing!

singin'-newsies-goil: DUDE, HOW WAS RENT?!?!?!?!?!

Braids21: Hooray for Bohemian Rhapsody! I love that song so friggin' much... Thanks for reviewing!

uninvisible: I love Crutchy! I mean, I don't find him attractive AT ALL, but I love him anyway. He's hysterical. Thanks for reviewing!

Soaker: ((strums guitar)) Every day I wake up and it's Sunday... Whatever's in my eye won't go away... The radio is playing all the usual... What's a wonderwall anyway? ((pauses)) You listen to Travis. Oh. My. God. I love you so much. You are the FIRST PERSON who actually knows who they are—AHH, I LOVE YOU! THANKS FOR REVIEWING!!

Written Sparks: Romance with Nova. ((smiles nervously)) I'm really, _really _going to try, but the thing is I've got about thirty pairings going on right now and I don't know if I can successfully handle any more. AHH! Plus the fact that Skittery is most definitely gay might be a bit of a hindrance... :-D

Scout73: I don't think I'm going for the Scout/Jack romance action. Do you mind? It's just too many pairings to deal with, and you don't even LIKE Jack! (Besides, he's a complete asshole in this story, dontcha think?) Thanks for reviewing! And I'm sorry I made you evil, lol...

Dakki: I've completely given up trying to respond to your reviews. They're too funny. I LOVE YOU AND TON CHIEN, DALTON! (Haha, remember when you told me I'd soon be rich enough to get Gabe Damon on a leash? Well you seem to already be going in that general direction.) Your latest addition to our masterpiece was pure GENIUS, and I love you for it. Thanks for reviewing!!

Sapphy: I, like, don't watch television at all. Except my beloved Sox. It's really sad. What is this "Lost" of which you speak? :-D Hahahaha, yeah, I'm thinking that Bumlets and Swifty are gonna be the main pairing so their get-together has to be al lot slower. You and Bumlets are gonna have a little reunion at some point, though. Just 'cause you guys are so perfect together. ;-)

Coin: FISH: ((bow down to Coin)). SATURDAY: ((laughs ass off)). Thank you SO MUCH for reviewing...

* * *

Author's Note: BLINK: ((comes into the room with a scary witch nose on))

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

BLINK: ((little kid voice)) Don't be silly, Saturday, it's just me!

I knew that. ((regains dignity)) Happy Halloween, I love you all! Now leave a review, which is twice as good as candy and much healthier.

BLINK: ...you loser.

Shut up.

-Saturday


End file.
